TOPIC: Do you think we have free will?

Shark wrote:
I'm afraid I've been tackling this from a moral philsophy standpoint, as that's sort of my area of expertise. But studying philosophy is always going to be a headache, because there're way too many factors involved, every friggin' suggestion I make could be countered with the opposite, because that's what the world is - a whole bunch of "Yeah, buts." Ad infinitum. The inherent issue with determinism is the same one with free will, and the same one with religion, and atheism - every argument for, can be made against it, because neither has any concrete proof.

I like to think we have free will, only because I look at the world and think that there was no way that any intelligent creator, and no way determinism brought us to this place where we are. We're on the road to destruction, then we're not, then we are, then we're not, we're reaching new heights of discovery, then we're way behind, then we are, then we're not. Our world is an indecisive big bitch that makes its decisions out of necessity and curiosity. A giant "What does this button do?"

At least, that's how I see it. Again, you could literally take my argument and turn it on its head - but I think that's part of the fun of it, knowing that no one answer is the absolutely correct one... even if it is gonna drive you up the effing wall.

Finally, if you're looking for people to look into, try Immanuel Kant's metaphysics, the Greek classical philosophers, like Plato, try Nietzche, or even Buddha. Buddhism is actually one of the sources of the very aspect of nihilism, despite the consistent emphasis on balance and minimalism. Though, I think it was meant more in a "This is how *not* to think" kind of way.

After reading through all of this, I have to say that I'm definitely feeling like there's a lot of emphasis on deontology (the means) and little emphasis on consequentialism (the ends). It feels like there're a considerable amount of people saying "Your every action is impacted by the environment you're in and therefore you don't have free will," but I think the more pressing point is:

Free will speaks to whether our actions are ultimately our own, or if they're preordained by some external force. Not our environment, not our personal circumstances, but by something that has written our journey for us before we had a chance to get a say in the matter.

Think for ourselves. This world has people who challenged society itself. Who dared to stand up to the way things are, and say that the way things are should change.

Without going on for too long, yes. I think we have free will.

lmao in psychology we're doing the different approaches that people take to explain behaviour and whatnot and we've done like 6 and they're mostly depressing saying stuff like our personality and all that is determined before we're born or that everything we do is copied off role models that we see in life but there's the humanist approach which just basically says that humans have the free will to do what they want. One of the positives people say about it is that its a refreshing take compared to determinist shit because it says that we have the power to self-actualise and reach our own fullest potential though there are some factors that limit it. It's kinda mad when you think about how many people come from nothing and succeed so much more than other people do despite apparently being limited by a poor environment etc. Im a huge football fan and there's so many famous footballers who grew up in slums and had rough childhoods but came through and are now millionaires and you see it with people in every field. Why would they come through like that when being surrounded by negative influences from day one? You can say all this scientific stuff about thoughts and complicated mindfuckery but at the end of the day id much rather just believe that God put me on this earth with the ability to do whatever the fuck i wanted.

tl;dr: Free will can only exist if it can't be predicted because a Calculator is predictable. Humans are nothing more than complex calculators.

tl;dr: Free will can only exist if it can't be predicted because a Calculator is predictable. Humans are nothing more than complex calculators.

Changing my answer to yes as I had free will to scroll past the essays

lmao in psychology we're doing the different approaches that people take to explain behaviour and whatnot and we've done like 6 and they're mostly depressing saying stuff like our personality and all that is determined before we're born or that everything we do is copied off role models that we see in life but there's the humanist approach which just basically says that humans have the free will to do what they want. One of the positives people say about it is that its a refreshing take compared to determinist shit because it says that we have the power to self-actualise and reach our own fullest potential though there are some factors that limit it. It's kinda mad when you think about how many people come from nothing and succeed so much more than other people do despite apparently being limited by a poor environment etc. Im a huge football fan and there's so many famous footballers who grew up in slums and had rough childhoods but came through and are now millionaires and you see it with people in every field. Why would they come through like that when being surrounded by negative influences from day one? You can say all this scientific stuff about thoughts and complicated mindfuckery but at the end of the day id much rather just believe that God put me on this earth with the ability to do whatever the fuck i wanted.

at the end of the day id much rather just believe that God put me on this earth with the ability to do whatever the fuck i wanted.

at the end of the day id much rather just believe that God put me on this earth with the ability to do whatever the fuck i wanted.

"Shady, wait a minute, that's my girl, dawg!"
I don't give a fuck, God sent me to piss the world off!