What do you think about free will?

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Asking people about free will is my idea of small talk. In a perfect world I would get to know anyone by asking “do you believe in free will?”. Then, they might say “it depends on whether the world is deterministic”, and I might say “great, I disagree!”, and we could have a whole-hearted argument.

First, I could ask politely if one isn’t conflating determinism with fatalism (like, for instance, the show “Devs” do, imho). In the famous story, Oedipus is fated to kill his father and marry his mother, and whatever he does, it doesn’t change his destiny. His story is about fatalism, not about determinism. Determinism works just the other way around – we are in certain conditions, BECAUSE we acted in some way earlier, and not IN SPITE OF our actions.

Among many “free will experts”, a common view is that the question of determinism and the question of free will are independent. The first one is for scientists and the second for philosophers (so we can be sure, we’ll never get the answer, as they didn’t give a single answer in the last 2500 years). So called compatibilists believe that free will is compatible with determinism, e.g. because it allows our actions to be caused by our beliefs and desires. Incompatibilists disagree, because they think a possibility to act in different ways is required to have free will. Then, compatibilists say determinism is compatible with the everyday notion of different possibilities, and then they fight. Incompatibilists seem to have total dominance in popular culture and it’s annoying, but I get it – compatibilism doesn’t have much potential for drama.

Obviously, there are always sceptics lurking in the corner, claiming that free will just can’t exist, because both determined causes and random causes are not free. There are people who believe in some other form of causation – not determined and not random – but I don’t get them and it seems too magical to me.

Also, I have a thought experiment. Let’s pretend I’m a complicated person and have three culinary desires at once! I want to eat a sandwich or a pancake or a donut, and don’t know which one to choose. What to do, what to do? My final decision depends on probabilities of each choice. In a fully deterministic world, one choice has a chance of 100% (let’s say it’s a pancake) and others have 0%. I don’t know it, because I’m stupid. In a fully chaotic world, the probabilities are equal (there’s also a probability that I’ll explode before I manage to eat, or that the whole world will explode). In a “middle way” world the chances are, let’s say, 70% for a pancake, 20% for a sandwich and 10% for a donut, or any other probabilities between totally equal and “one takes it all”. In all worlds the final decision is a combination of causes-effects and random selections. Why would any of them guarantee more free will than the others?

So… what do you think about free will?

An excellent post (and nice to have a philosophy discussion).

I instinctively say that I'm a determinist non-compatibilist, and that if the world isn't deterministic (it seems not to be on the quantum scale, but it's not clear to me that's actually relevant) then I am a sceptic who doesn't believe random decisions are truly free. I also think that our universe is not just deterministic, but fatalistic, and that if we rewound the tape we'd get the same outcomes.

On balance, though, I think it makes sense to say that human actions, regardless of whether they are deterministic, are the result of will. This will might be deterministic, and illusionary, but it is free enough to meet my definition.

Deep

More like I believe in the paradox of it.

That it is both chaotic and orderly, significant and insignificant depending on one's own point of reference.

If everything is determined or designed by something, factors that had happened long before you're even born to set up a moment of those choices for you by something else before you and before them, who is to say the things you're consciously deciding at that present, past or future is determined by your will alone or is predetermined by said source that exists long before you and those before you?


Is the expression of your present a reaction of your past or intent over future?
Is your intent of your future a reaction of your past? Etc.


Here's an example;
If shrimps weren't evolved the way they did, what would the biodiversity look like?
In another world where that's true, it might not be as different from we are now.
Yet in another world that's also true, might ended up with a completely radical change of the entire world.

If shrimps weren't evolved the way they did, what would the odds that it can replace shrimp allergy with instead?

And would a concept or an event of a shrimp allergy exists without humans evolving with a completely different immune response system, therefore this reality's one individual's knowledge, and experiences and choice of not choosing shrimp due to having an allergy preventing an immune response reaction wouldn't even taken place?


Why would that even matter?
In another scale, it's by design. In another scale, it's just luck.
In another scale, it's predetermined. In another scale, it's determined.


Some would determine that it's free will. Because they're focused on the individual and subjectivity and also the now and the conscious intent and will.
That working hard works and makes sense, that there is a logic within the causes and effects, aware of how or what is within control.

Some would care that it isn't.
Because they're looking at science and stats; like the dimension of time even actually exists like the color magenta or how we're even solid in the first place.
Or how that one trait is one detriment to the majority of the individuals well being and choices in life. Or even the whole subconsciously making decisions long before the conscious even perceived it.

Some don't because it is. Because it's all about making a meaning to all of this. That maybe what they do means something.
Some don't because it isn't. Because it just doesn't make sense. Maybe they'll just enjoy this ride we call living and existing.


Me?
My answer is "Why not?"


I could care less what type of free will it is referring to.

I'd definately want to be free from several constraints of my upbringing and biology as a human.
Some have that choice, some don't. Only I'll find out if that's possible for me or not.

Oh sure, there's wanting to be free of constraints over something like, say, physics -- but what about the laws of cause and effect?
Then there's plenty of laws to master within that scale within an individual's position and status.


Oh, sure, technically, I can very much just get up from my bed and smuggle myself into another country illegally.
What are the odds that I'll succeed?
And why even do that for???

Technically I have that choice, physically and objectively.
But statistically, I'm skeptical with how everything it set up to be like I literally have no reason to, like how I don't have the know hows and resources.
Lawfully, I shouldn't.

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The very moment I start thinking about the question of free will is the very moment I stop thinking about it

It's not because it's boring or anything like that because it's not it's fascinating but it's just because it feels like my brain curls itself up into a little ball and just refuses to go there

I think you can choose what you want, but you can't choose what to want.

Eat 'em all... Let guts sort them out.

Einstein did not believe, but ironically also believed that he had to behave as though he believed in it.

I voted "Other." I strongly suspect that free will is an illusion, but I don't know for sure. As for what it has to do with determinism, I think I know but I'd find it hard to put into words. I never heard of the term before, but on perusal I think it's the idea that the state of the entire universe at one particular point in time depends entirely on the state of the entire universe at the point just prior to that. If so, that's a big strand of my feeling that there is no free will, but I'm not sure that it's the whole story, so I thought I'd best vote "Other."

Well I've thought a bit about it and what my thoughts are is that there are the events in your life that are meant to be no matter what but you still need to use your free will cards for the smaller stuff that isn't really set in stone

It's like if you're going on a journey and there's loads of ways to get there those choices are free will but you're always gonna end up in the same place no matter what your choice is

In fact I'm gonna extend on what I said before and say that I think the only thing that's determined is death and it's all free will up to then