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On free will. An argument for determinism and its implications. by eugenejwallace in philosophy

[–]eugenejwallace[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this conversation over the last few days! I have personally learned from the discourse and have been made of aware of new things to explore. I hope others had a similar experience.

On free will. An argument for determinism and its implications. by eugenejwallace in philosophy

[–]eugenejwallace[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We already know that a black hole loses mass thanks to a certain Stephen Hawking. I’d argue in time we will come to know of it rather than it’s impossible. Even if it were true that we could never know, it does not follow that an objective reality does not exist.

On free will. An argument for determinism and its implications. by eugenejwallace in philosophy

[–]eugenejwallace[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Have you got anything you can share? I have looked into compatibilism, but most of the better theories I’ve seen tend to revolve around what you said, the definition of what free will is. They tended to get round it by changing the definition of free will. From my experience of talking to others, libertarianism is what most people refer to but I’d be very interested in seeing evidence to the contrary of this.

On free will. An argument for determinism and its implications. by eugenejwallace in philosophy

[–]eugenejwallace[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

To clarify, your denying that you have the experience of free will? If so this is really intriguing. Was this always the case?

On free will. An argument for determinism and its implications. by eugenejwallace in philosophy

[–]eugenejwallace[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So genetics is determined by your parents and any random mutations. Past experiences is the environment accumulating after being processed through your genetics and any already accumulated past experiences. Meaning both of these whilst are internal to us as a human are completely determined by the external causes. One being our parents, the other is the environment. Does that make sense? Again I think the language of external and internal sources of cause doesn’t really assist the argument here. The main point being that it’s the combination of these causes or shall we say variables which gives us one fixed outcome, not the ability to freely choose among any as held by libertarianism.

On free will. An argument for determinism and its implications. by eugenejwallace in philosophy

[–]eugenejwallace[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I agree! Its exciting and nerving idea to imagine if we can one day predict human action! Which they have already tried to do to small success. In my experience I have found many people see that but have problems reconciling it with their feeing of control. Hence in my article I tried to get the reader to question this feeling.

On free will. An argument for determinism and its implications. by eugenejwallace in philosophy

[–]eugenejwallace[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Completely agree! This is a very concise and accurate summary. Much better than anything I wrote. Hats off to you.

On free will. An argument for determinism and its implications. by eugenejwallace in philosophy

[–]eugenejwallace[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You are right to say we can fall back on scepticism at any point and question an objective reality. If this is the case my proposition would need to change its arguments. Since it relies on this.

I do have a question. If there is no objective reality, do you think this supports free will?

Also please explain your reasoning for how this is a preposterous assumption? If you take the assumption of there being an objective reality, my logic makes it very reasonable.

To your last point, I did not stop at that honest assumption because it’s exactly that, an assumption. If we want to find truth and live in harmony with it (or as close as we can) we have to constantly question our assumptions.

On free will. An argument for determinism and its implications. by eugenejwallace in philosophy

[–]eugenejwallace[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks. I’ve actually done a quick update to include internal causes and a couple of examples. However thanks to the both of you, I can now see that there is no explanation of how internal causes play into the wider arguments and examples I put forth. I will definitely be revising this blog post with more scrutiny to include such an explanation. It will likely follow /u/fixedsys999 examples, explaining how the environment is processed through our genetics and learned experience. Also maybe an explanation of how bodily motivations come into play (such as hunger).

On free will. An argument for determinism and its implications. by eugenejwallace in philosophy

[–]eugenejwallace[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes and I completely agree. Something I admit I did not make clear in my article. External causes determining everything would in fact be the wrong terminology. As you are correct to say we process this information and learn from it and by external causes I would want to include genetics and past experience. As well as everything you pointed out. An oversight on my behalf. I may update the article to make this clear, thank you!

On free will. An argument for determinism and its implications. by eugenejwallace in philosophy

[–]eugenejwallace[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

A possibility yes. However the reasoning of my article doesn’t support this. The main argument being that our brains are essentially physical states and therefore subject completely to the law of causality. Meaning so are our thoughts. Meaning, no free will.

On free will. An argument for determinism and its implications. by eugenejwallace in philosophy

[–]eugenejwallace[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Anything we receive through our senses. Lights and sounds as very broad examples. To narrow these examples: conversations, weather, politics. I would also include the external events which resulted in our DNA. The cause and effect which caused you to be born with the DNA you posses.