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Originally Posted by Sa\/en  Free will exists in the sense that we can have the sensation of hunger, and we can fulfill that sensation by eating the apple. In this light, our will has been fulfilled. We chose the apple and nothing was in the way of that choice. I think this is known as Compatibilism.
But fulfilling your will and having free will are different concepts, imo. Many thought that quantum mechanics would allow free will, because of its indeterminate nature. But in reality, quantum mechanics does not help the issue of free will any more than determinism. I think that the problem of free will is that man sees himself as independent from the rest of the universe, thinking that the world outside him does not affect him. But in reality, the human body is not an isolated system. The human body together with the planets, stars and solar systems, create a system of their own.
Duck, what exactly do you mean when you said that there is no basis for arguing that life and choices are totally environmental? What else is there besides our genetics and our environment? (By environment, I mean all the systems we interact with) |
Well put. Schopenhauer makes the distinction in your first paragraph of freedom of action and freedom of will.
The notion of free will (i.e. you can be an effect without a cause) doesn't track at all. Think of your reason for any given action. Ask yourself: "Could I change my reason for action?" If you could, then what would your reason for changing your action be? This turns into an infinite regression.
You have reasons for action. Whatever they are. These are your motivations and you can not change them. If you did, then your real motivations and reasons describe your change of your reasons and you can not change those.
You are a driven machine. Environmental variables are processed, logged, interpreted, integrated, etc for your whole life and your behavior is a derived process corresponding to your current state responding to your current inptus as they are correlated with your past experiences.
Deterministic or not, free will (The notion that you are some individual entity in an ultimate sense) is false.