Free Will?

Free will, the doctrine that an individual, regardless of forces external to him, can and does choose his actions.
The existence of free will is challenged by determinism. Every event is the inevitable result of antecedent causes. We, as humans, are determined through our society, religion, ...

What does it mean to make a choice?

I'm a fatalist, so IMHO there is no such thing as free will...everything happens for some demented reason, regardless of what or how stupid it is. 😄

It’s pretty much inevitable that you will walk across a street at some point. How you cross it is determined by a number of factors, including your desire to cross it safely. Although it’s not inevitable that you will cross the street with your eyes open, it’s a good bet, given your desire not to be injured or killed.

What if you come to believe that all your behavior is fully determined: that in any given situation you couldn’ t have done other than what you did, given all the factors operating? How might this change, if at all, your approach to crossing the street?

If determinism is true, then the way you cross the street next time is fully a function of various factors coming to bear at that time. If you cross the street with your eyes open, that’s determined, if you cross it with eyes closed, that’s determined too.

But then, as a fatalist, you might say: "The future is fixed: I’m either fated to get across the street safely or not. If I am fated to be hit by a car, then it doesn’ t matter what precautions I take. Since the future is fixed, it doesn’ t matter what I do."

I believe in free will but I also believe if sh*t can happen, it will and generally does!

free will doesn't exist ppl made it up

^^ true...I agree with FM and everybody else who posted so far 🙂, free will does not exist, choices we make are simply a result of so many factors that we cannot possibly willfuly affect them all, only then would the choice be free...

Christ, you people are gloomy...

😂 I take it u believe in free will Ush ?

Yup.

I also believe that people do not necessarily operate for intrinsically selfish reasons, which is the other gloom-a-thon thing that I find a surprising amount of people believing in.

I believe in free will.
Just because our actions are the result of noumerous factors, that doesn't mean we couldn't have acted differently. I also don't believe in fate -we make our own fate.

well, evy_o... I do not 😖

Yay! And Evy is Greek so we have to listen to her.

(nods)

Imo, we are both determined and, in some aspects, free-willed.

Oh, how no fun!

hehe, you believe in it, and I sometimes do 😄

some things you can deceide for yourself (the famous "I'm free to run outside and get run over by a car, no one can forsee that, so it's my own free will to do it) and some things are set (big things)

I still think all our decisions are influenced a great deal by a million other factors to such an extend that you can not talk about free will anymore.

I do agree with ush that not every decision we make is based on selfish reasons

I think the question should be more like this "Does free will arise freely" is it that our consiciousness is influence by the things we see? Can our minds escape the overpowering force of the will? Certainly! They are two ways (those of you that are familiar with Schopenhauer might recoginize this) One is Ethics and the other aesthetics. By denying the passions and desire that influence freewill a human being can think clearly and rational.

Originally posted by Fire
I do agree with ush that not every decision we make is based on selfish reasons

Errr... as if satisfying any of those three is not selfish?

compassion, love, loyalty...