Somber
Arcanist
- Jan 6, 2022
- 457
Explanation
Free Will is posessing the ability to make choices that are of your own volition, that are not the inevitable conclusion of your environment and the chemical processes in your body (and brain).
Posessing Free Will does not necessarily mean that it is absolute, as few would deny that environment and chemical reactions, such as hormones, play a role in our decision making process.
If you believe you have a say in the decisions you make, your answer is Yes.
If you believe all your decisions are made entirely by internal & external factors then your answer is No.
Consequences
It is often said that suicide is the ultimate expression of Free Will as indicated by the willpower needed by so many to overcome their SI, yet most of us would not contemplate suicide if certain conditions had been different.
If Free Will does not exist then we are a culmination of chemical processes that could not have us react in any other way than we have. Just like any other decision we seem to have made in the past, our decision to commit suicide (or not) was an inevitability that could not have played out any other way.
Free Will is an illusion.
This means that with enough processing power and an understanding of all variables we could predict the future perfectly in minute detail.
It also means criminals are being locked up for crimes they couldn't not commit. Locking them up was equally inevitable.
If Free Will does exist we are essentially acknowledging we are not just a physical body on a material plane as there is an element to us that stands in contact, yet transcends it. That which allows for agency to take place.
What do I fail to take into account?
Free Will is posessing the ability to make choices that are of your own volition, that are not the inevitable conclusion of your environment and the chemical processes in your body (and brain).
Posessing Free Will does not necessarily mean that it is absolute, as few would deny that environment and chemical reactions, such as hormones, play a role in our decision making process.
If you believe you have a say in the decisions you make, your answer is Yes.
If you believe all your decisions are made entirely by internal & external factors then your answer is No.
Consequences
It is often said that suicide is the ultimate expression of Free Will as indicated by the willpower needed by so many to overcome their SI, yet most of us would not contemplate suicide if certain conditions had been different.
If Free Will does not exist then we are a culmination of chemical processes that could not have us react in any other way than we have. Just like any other decision we seem to have made in the past, our decision to commit suicide (or not) was an inevitability that could not have played out any other way.
Free Will is an illusion.
This means that with enough processing power and an understanding of all variables we could predict the future perfectly in minute detail.
It also means criminals are being locked up for crimes they couldn't not commit. Locking them up was equally inevitable.
If Free Will does exist we are essentially acknowledging we are not just a physical body on a material plane as there is an element to us that stands in contact, yet transcends it. That which allows for agency to take place.
What do I fail to take into account?