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Author Topic: Determinism vs. Free Will  (Read 15956 times)

« Reply #30 on: June 01, 2011, 06:12:15 PM »
My problem with free will (or the claim "I will") is its presupposition of "I" being the necessary condition for the act of willing. In actuality, "I" or the ego is composed of and dictated by a complex of competing unconscious wills. For example, the ego's will to eat is dictated by the unconscious will to hunger, the will to exercise is dictated by the will to health, and so on. In short, the ego is causally determined by the unfettered assertion of wills or natural laws. The ego can act in accordance with these wills (Schopenhauer described this as physical freedom) but it cannot be the necessary condition for them.

That's just my take on it. Some might cite this as evidence for an ultimate cause, i.e. God, but they'd run into the same problem I think.
« Last Edit: June 01, 2011, 07:41:22 PM by PaperLuigi »
Luigison: Question everything!
Me: Why?

CrossEyed7

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« Reply #31 on: June 01, 2011, 10:18:56 PM »
I see my mind as a company where I'm the CEO. There's a whole bunch of people sitting around a table with competing interests, arguing with each other over which action to take, and I sit back and listen to them all and decide who to listen to.

Everyone around the table is part of me, the whole company is part of me; but the CEO is the irreducible me, the I at the center of all my experiences. The aiua, if you prefer Orson Scott Card's terminology.
"Oh man, I wish being a part of a Mario fan community was the most embarrassing thing about my life." - Super-Jesse

« Reply #32 on: June 02, 2011, 02:19:19 PM »
Does your computer have free will? Obviously not. Do you have free will? No, you are a more complex version of the same thing. Can the computer detect that it doesn't have free will? No, it can only follow its existing IF/THEN statements and can't transcend its own programming to "feel" these "choices" being made. Can you detect that you don't have free will? No, same reason.

Brains have an added advantage over current-day computers in that they can organically add and change programming on the fly (i.e., learning) but your thoughts are still always constrained within the system and aren't ever going to be able to detect the underlying IF/THEN statements.

TEM

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« Reply #33 on: June 02, 2011, 08:05:19 PM »
So you're saying the IF is... GOD?

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« Reply #34 on: June 02, 2011, 09:09:15 PM »
If God is conscious, is it farfetched to say that he too is influenced by unconscious wills?
Luigison: Question everything!
Me: Why?

Luigison

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« Reply #35 on: June 03, 2011, 08:47:37 AM »
“Evolution has shaped us with perceptions that allow us to survive. But part of that involves hiding from us the stuff we don’t need to know."

Luigison

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« Reply #36 on: March 18, 2012, 09:54:45 AM »


I couldn't stop myself from replying to this old thread. 
“Evolution has shaped us with perceptions that allow us to survive. But part of that involves hiding from us the stuff we don’t need to know."

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