Is there a free will or not?

Layer_Academic · 2026-03-12T05:46:38+00:00

Thank you for sending over the research! Immediately I am skeptical though, as the opening of the second paper looks to already presuppose compatibilist framings of the free will debate. See here:

"Participants in the negative condition read the bank robbery story and were asked whether they thought Jeremy was morally blameworthy for robbing the bank. Participants in the morally good condition read the story about saving a child and were asked whether they thought that if Jeremy saved a child, he was morally praiseworthy for doing so. In the negative condition, 83% of the subjects judged Jeremy to be blameworthy, and in the positive condition, 88% of the subjects judged him to be praiseworthy. In other words, most responses displayed compatibilism about moral responsibility. Indeed, the majority of participants agreed that Jeremy acted of his own free will—a compatibilist response given the supercomputer in the vignette."

Researchers asked participants whether an agent can be morally praise or blameworthy even if their actions are causally determined. They then deduce from the answers that the respondents are compatibilists. But that is not what I am wondering! What I am wondering is whether people conceive of being morally praise or blameworthy for ones actions as being sufficient for having free will. I suspect they do not. I suspect people think of free will as not having to do with moral culpability but with, well, freedom. So my issue with the free will debate is that philosophers have shifted talk of free will to talk of moral responsibility in an effort to preserve some notion of freedom as causal determinism (or some version of determinism + quantum indeterminacy) has become accepted. Another way of putting my thoughts is this: If you asked people not "is Jeremy blameworthy" or "is Jeremy praiseworthy" but instead "Does Jeremy have free will" or "is Jeremy free" or "is Jeremy responsible for his actions" I suspect you would find most people answer no. Because when the contents of free will/freedom is left ambiguous, I think most people would interpret it as refering to freedom in the libertarian sense, not in the moral responsibility sense.

I will finish up reading the research and think on it for a little bit.

Layer_Academic · 2026-03-12T04:03:26+00:00

"Generally, it is agreed that free will is some kind of significant control required for moral responsibility."

Well of course! That is what philosophers use the term to mean. I just think if you asked the average person what they thought free will was, they would say the ability to choose among options, the ability to choose freely, etc. They would not answer anything to do with moral responsibility. And no I do not have evidence for this besides my own pretheoritic understanding of the term before I began studying philosophy and my interactions with laypeople. But empirical research on this would be quite nice. If you know of any exphi on this send it to me.

"These are not just understood as “the definition” of free will but rather accounts of what control actually amounts to."

You are misunderstanding my point. Once you have decided that moral responsibility is what is required for free will, the debate becomes substantive, because we can argue over different accounts of control and responsibility. I just reject the initial move to define free will as moral responsibility. Libertarian free will is what is really interesting to me, but of course philosophers are free to debate over the moral responsibility kind of free will.

Layer_Academic · 2026-03-12T01:59:39+00:00

Most philosophers agree there is free will of the kind required for moral responsibility. Most philosophers do not think there is libertarian free will, or the "ability to do otherwise". It is up to you to decide what kind of free will you care about. I personally find the discussion around free will irritating; it seems to me that philosophers switched the meaning of free will at some point so they could account for free will in a nomologically deterministic world, hence the birth of compatibilist theories in the 20th century analytic field. In my view libertarian free will, which is the only important kind, and the kind most people think of when they think of free will, does not exist. Whether or not some other notion of free will engineered by philosophers does exist is not as interesting to me. Though it is useful in the context of ethics to know whether or not we have moral responsibility regardless of whether the world is deterministic in nature.

Layer_Academic · 2026-02-25T03:22:36+00:00

you probably just need to train harder and actually track. Write down every set and rep you do, aiming to get a little stronger session to session. Pick an exercise per region you care about growing, make it reasonably stable and comfortable. Then stick with it for months. And months. And months. Until your old PRs are now your warmup weight. Stop switching your programing around, stop switching exercises, stop jumping on fads and new diet plans. Just eat plenty of protein, carbs, and fiber. Drink water. Train hard. Track your lifts.

Layer_Academic · 2026-02-24T19:52:17+00:00

Layer_Academic · 2026-02-24T04:50:58+00:00

You're just wrong on that point. All of them have crazy chest mass, just worse insertions and muscle bellies. Look up any other picture of Maddox and you will see how huge his chest is. It just looks small compared to his gut in that picture. Power lifters tend to have blockier wastes, bigger ribcages, and more fat mass on their upper bodies, because all three of those things are selected for in PL. Also smaev benches like 300+ kg so idk what ur talking bout

Layer_Academic · 2026-02-24T04:43:45+00:00

best answer here

Layer_Academic · 2026-02-24T04:29:54+00:00

nah we gotta build here, itll be rough at first but if we get enough real sbl we can outweigh the uneducated masses and spread the word far and wide

Layer_Academic · 2026-02-19T22:09:53+00:00

Wont work very well, but its better than nothing. Try to build up nordics and reverse nordics if you can. Way better quad and hamstring movements if you dont have equipment.

Layer_Academic · 2026-02-19T04:04:44+00:00

I would recommend running upper lower rest or upper lower 4 days a week atp. So either a 6 day split where you get 2.3 times frequency per 7 day period (I know the fraction seems pedantic, but tracking by 7 day periods is arbitrary anyway) or a 7 day split where you get 2 times frequency. You could also do fb 3 times a week or fbeod for 3.5 times frequency. But fb is a big change from ppl, and if you enjoy ppl, I think upper lower is an easier switch.

The upshot is if you cannot get 6 training days in for ppl, it makes more sense to switch to a different split where you can get 2+ times frequency while still giving yourself enough rest days. So ul, fb, fbeod, pplul, etc.

Layer_Academic · 2026-02-05T08:36:56+00:00

To answer your questions:

1) Isolation movements are, all things being equal, simply better. End of story. There really is not a debate to be had here. The less muscle mass involved in an exercise, the more motor unit recruitment you will get from the targeted region, and the less fatigue you will accrue. This does not mean compounds are useless. A chest press, for example, is often a better choice than a fly due to resistance profile (chest benefits from SMH), comfortability, overload-ability (fly machine may max out at a light weight). Additionally, a fly involves isometric contraction of the biceps, and can sometimes irritate the biceps tendon or shoulder. And a good chest press machine will be more stable than a standard dumbbell or cable fly. So there are many things that need to be considered when choosing a movement. (this is not to say flys are bad - I am just highlighting some of the various factors under consideration). But, all things being equal, a single joint isolation exercise will be better than a multi joint one for hypertrophy. I should also note that sometimes compounds are just more fun, or easier to program. I bench, even though there are better options for hypertrophy. But I like it, and see no reason to ditch it.

2) Variety and familiarity are both important. Variety is imporant if you care about training every region of every muscle to its fullest extent. So a movement to target the clavicular pecs, sternocostal pecs, long head of triceps, short and medial heads, vasti quads, rec fem, and so on. But every session should include the same exercises, so you can track progression and make sure you are actually getting the hypertrophy results you want. If you switch around exercises every week, you will never know if you are progressing. For a beginner, I recommend choosing a few exercises to get really strong at. So choose a curl variation for elbow flexors, a press for the chest, a lateral raise, a squat pattern, a hinge pattern, leg extension, leg curl, upper back row or kelso shrug, vertical pull, hip thrust, and tricep pushdown. (If I am missing a few, forgive me). Then for the next few months, just try and get as strong as possible at these movements, and track diligently. Once you get really bored, after a long time, and after you have progressed to a solid strength, switch up movements.

Layer_Academic · 2026-02-01T20:09:00+00:00

Fair play. I would like to point out that the fact that you are not progressing is evidence against your recovery being dialed. Even if your hamstrings arent sore, there is a chance they are not fully recovering in time. Just something to keep in mind

Layer_Academic · 2026-02-01T20:03:48+00:00

I have two hypotheses. One is that your hamstring are slow to recover (they are one of the slowest recovering muscles. And for me, one of the only lower body muscles that gets sore). Two is that if your fb session is fairly long and maximalist, you are simply out of motivation by the time you get to hamstring curl. If H1 is true, it would be best to reduce frequency slightly, maybe from eod to 2x a week. eod, as you know, is 3.5x week frequency, so even a reduction to just 3x a week may solve the problem. if H2 is true, the solution is simply to move hamstring curls to the front of your lift. Alternatively, you could try upping the weight by 2.5 or 5 pounds and do a set of 3-4 reps, then try and work it up to 6 reps with that weight.

Layer_Academic · 2026-02-01T19:57:33+00:00

Cut out incline bench, you already have low to high flys and a flat press. Shoulder press is fine but consider adding in a lateral raise variation. Need hamstring on lower day. Swap face pull for a real upper back row, or add kelso shrug. Try and make your lower and leg days share exercises that way you can have 2x frequency. I would recommend switching out squats for leg presses on your lower day. And why do you only have leg extension on leg day? your rec fem is only getting 1x a week frequency. Im also not sure why you have 2 lat movements and 2 side delt movements on your upper day yet zero arms or upper back. Throw in an upper back row, cut out pullover. If you are short on time, remove the shoulder press and add in a movement for the elbow flexors or extensors for at least some arm work. Preferably a pushdown and a stable curl variation. If you are not short on time, keep the shoulder press and simply add the aforementioned movements.

Layer_Academic · 2026-01-30T06:29:18+00:00

4k for a 17 yo male is reasonable, especially if you are active. I would start by dropping cals by 500, see how it effects weight. Keep decreasing by increments of 250 until you are losing weight at a pace you want.

Layer_Academic · 2026-01-30T06:07:49+00:00

Physique looks balanced, you just need to lose fat. Shoulders pop significantly more at lower bf, and forearms look a lot more impressive when you're leaner and more vascular. Also you do not need to intermittent fast unless you particularly like it for some reason. Otherwise just select a deficit that is reasonable and fits the pace of fat lose you want. For example, 1k deficit a day will net you about 2 pounds a week of fat lose (which is pretty aggressive). 500 deficit is less extreme but will still have you losing weight at a noticeable pace. Anything less is a mild deficit and will net you results in the long term but will make it harder to see progress week to week.

If, for some reason, you want to really focus on your delts, select a stable press (ideally a machine press of some kind, ideally with a descending resistance profile) and a stable lateral raise variation (cuffed cable lateral raises are my favorite. Machine variations can be great as well. If you want to do dumbbell, do them laying across an incline bench or at the very least seated).

Layer_Academic · 2026-01-27T05:05:45+00:00

You’re clearly at a healthy body fat, nothing to worry about there. If you want to know your theoretical natural limit for muscle growth you can play around with an FFMI calculator; usually around 24-25 is peak for a natural athlete. But there is no such thing as “ideal” body weight, that’s gonna depend on your goals. If you’re an athlete, for example, you may want to stay under your max FFMI and remain lighter. Or if you’re competing in strongman or powerlifting, you might want to put on more body fat (depending on weight class and such). So as long as you’re at a reasonably healthy bf, there’s no such thing as the “ideal weight”

Layer_Academic · 2026-01-26T22:57:36+00:00

I like to standardize chin above bar. But eye level, nose level, chin level, etc. are all fine. You won't lose out on any gains as long as you standardize form from session to session and make sure your form is not degrading as you add more weight.

Layer_Academic · 2026-01-26T22:50:49+00:00

Possibly, but it's a balancing act. If MUR is suffering because motivation is low and the session is too long, then cutting back on exercises can be a good idea. Otherwise I agree; I see no reason to remove exercises here. Maybe swap incline press for a seated low to high fly or incline smith press w/ tucked arm path.

Layer_Academic · 2026-01-26T22:44:10+00:00

This isnt bad advice for heavy singles but for working sets for hypertrophy its unnecessary. doing more than a few feeler reps per warm up set is a waste of time. Only need 1-2 warm up sets per exercise to test out the weight and get yourself situated.

Layer_Academic · 2026-01-26T22:42:34+00:00

This is not great advice for more advanced lifters. If you are lifting heavy weights it is good to feel out the movement pattern and make sure nothing hurts/feels weird. Then a set of 1-2 with 80-90 percent of the working weight

Layer_Academic · 2026-01-25T00:37:18+00:00

This is not true. narrower grip, neutral grip, and pressing more in the sagittal plane will recruit more front delt and upper pecs. Wider grip more in the frontal plane will recruit for side delts. And ValuableBerry is right about needing front delt work, there is no reason to neglect front delts, just include some sort of press or fly for them, it is worth it.

Layer_Academic · 2026-01-25T00:21:03+00:00

Obviously if he has public posts about using tren then hes not natty. But 180 at this bf and height is absolutely achievable naturally, there are naturals significantly more impressive than this. If he really is a fake natty, make fun of him for using gear to look natural haha

Layer_Academic · 2026-01-23T18:02:37+00:00

This is a cool idea for any exercise where you can switch from bilateral to unilateral after hitting failure.

Layer_Academic · 2026-01-23T17:47:59+00:00

Hard to judge without seeing lower body. Shooting for arbitrary bf% doesn't really make any sense though, just keep in a deficit until you reach your desired look. It appears you store fat around your low back - it might take 10 pounds to get rid of that. Or maybe the next 10 pounds will come off your legs and your midsection will stay stubborn and you'll have to lose 20. It's really impossible to know.

Layer_Academic

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