I agree that we don't understand alot about how we make decisions. But as far as the question of "Do we have a free-will" goes, we don't need to understand HOW we make decisions, but rather only that our decisions are all caused by something before them. I'm not suggesting that most people are merely over-looking a semantic detail of the definition of free-will, but rather I suggest that most have NO IDEA what it means, thinking that it actually means "I choose as I please". I say this because I used to think that's what free-will meant, and it wasn't until I heard someone I respected suggest that we didn't have a free-will, that i went and looked up the definition. The truth is, of course we can choose as we please, but all of our choices are caused, and what "we please" is caused. We cannot make uncaused choices. So we do have a will, but not a "free" will.
Just to elaborate a little, consider how we came to be. I was born, but i had no say in determining my own specifications. God did that. Or the Big-Bang did that, if you don't believe in God. All of our choices follow from our desires, which are part of our specification. My desires were imposed upon me by God or the Big-Bang. For example, I can not help but desire to be happy. It's not a matter of choice. All of my choices follow from my imposed desire to be happy, so my choices have as an immediate cause the desire to be happy, which itself has an ultimate cause (as does everything) in God or the Big-Bang. Do you see now how i think of free-will as a "silly myth"? What is our will "free" of?
We have no free-will, and that should be obvious when we consider the deffinition of the term, from American Heritage Dictionary:
The power of making free choices that are unconstrained by external circumstances or by an agency such as fate or divine will. If you believe that God created the universe, then you must conclude that God is the ultimate external cause that has caused all the decisions you have ever made or will ever make. If you don't believe in God, then you must conclude that the Big Bang is the ultimate external cause of all decisions you have ever made or will ever make. Either way, your decisions were indeed constrained (caused) by external circumstances, specifically God or the Big Bang.
The concept of free-will is a silly myth that most people believe in mostly because they don't even know the deffinition of the word.
Stego
Slashdot Mirror
I agree that we don't understand alot about how we make decisions. But as far as the question of "Do we have a free-will" goes, we don't need to understand HOW we make decisions, but rather only that our decisions are all caused by something before them. I'm not suggesting that most people are merely over-looking a semantic detail of the definition of free-will, but rather I suggest that most have NO IDEA what it means, thinking that it actually means "I choose as I please". I say this because I used to think that's what free-will meant, and it wasn't until I heard someone I respected suggest that we didn't have a free-will, that i went and looked up the definition. The truth is, of course we can choose as we please, but all of our choices are caused, and what "we please" is caused. We cannot make uncaused choices. So we do have a will, but not a "free" will. Just to elaborate a little, consider how we came to be. I was born, but i had no say in determining my own specifications. God did that. Or the Big-Bang did that, if you don't believe in God. All of our choices follow from our desires, which are part of our specification. My desires were imposed upon me by God or the Big-Bang. For example, I can not help but desire to be happy. It's not a matter of choice. All of my choices follow from my imposed desire to be happy, so my choices have as an immediate cause the desire to be happy, which itself has an ultimate cause (as does everything) in God or the Big-Bang. Do you see now how i think of free-will as a "silly myth"? What is our will "free" of?
Stego