Sorry guys, it's been a while since my last post. So without further ado, here goes:
Do we have free will? Can we truly make our own decisions, independent of any stimulus? Or are we simply reactive machines, incapable of accomplishing anything that can truly be called original? I say, if you believe in a purely physical, rational universe, then no, we do not have free will. Think about it: if you subscribe to the belief that the universe is controlled only by the laws of physics, then that means from the moment of Big Bang, if one knew the original directions and forces of the original particles of matter and energy, one could theoretically predict everything that would happen in the universe from that point onwards, right down to what you decide to have for lunch today. "But that's preposterous!" you might say. "I make random decisions all the time." I say that no decision is random. Decisions are composed of thoughts, which, when you break it down, are nothing more than a simple physical phenomenon: electrical impulses travelling along neuron pathways in our brains. The question of which pathways become developed enough for electrical impulses to travel along them, and thus the question of what we think and when we think it, is determined solely by two variables: heredity and outside stimulus, both of which are completely out of our individual control.
One might argue that memories also spark thoughts, but memories come from experience, and every experience you've ever had is a consequence of where, when, and how you were born, more variables over which an individual holds no sway. Thus, we cannot make a random decision that truly originates within our own mind; what you decided to have for lunch today may be the result of a subconscious memory of a tuna sandwich you ate 5 years ago, and if someone had a detailed enough model of your brain and all the stimuli going into it, they could predict literally every decision you will ever make, every thought you will ever have. The fact remains that the original particles were set in motion at particular angles with particular amounts of force, and our world today, indeed what goes on inside our very minds, is nothing more than the completely predictible culmination of the countless trillions of trillions of trillion (etc.) of physical reactions of those particles. Now you might say, "Wait a minute! Just because the future can be predicted doesn't mean I don't have the freedom to choose. It just means that the outcome of my choices is already known." In response to this conjecture, I present you with a theoretical scenario. Suppose you were with someone who could see the future just as normal people see the past. Now suppose that person pointed at a door told you that, in exactly 5 minutes, you would walk through it. You have no way of changing the fact that you will walk through the door; you have no control over the course of your life, and thus no free will. So I say that if you do not believe that there are forces at work in the universe outside the realm of physics, then you must believe that reality exists as a single, undeviating, purely sequential chain of events, and that the concept of free will is nothing but an illusion cast by our own minds.
As a disclaimer to this physical/metaphysical approach to analyzing free will, I feel I must at least touch on the subject of quantum mechanics. If you know anything about quantum mechanics, then you might say that my analysis is invalid; the field has shown that in our universe, many phenomena are random and spontaneous in the purest sense of the word. However, at least with respect the analysis of free will, this doesn't really change anything. Even if some events in our universe are truly random, they are still completely beyond our control as individuals, and they happen well below the level of complexity on which, say, our consciousness operates. Whether the universe is completely predictable or is in some cases probabilistic, we are still slaves to the reactions of our universe. We are the reactions of our universe
So if determinism rules out randomness, what about truly random things in science though.
ReplyDeleteFor example, we can never be sure of an electron's position around an atom at any given time (Heisenburg Uncertainty Principle), not because we don't have the technology, but because they move in truly random ways.
Also, radioactive decay is independent of any cause, as it's been constant for every atom since the beginning of the universe--unless every atom has an internal clock that somehow tells it to decay at set times.
One more thing. Determinism means everything, every action, every decision, every event has a cause. Which means every action needs a preceeding action. So how did the world start? Unless God when he made the world somehow circumvented causality?
I really dunno why I'm writing this. Maybe it's cause I'm jealous of ur blogging skills and general uber smartness and such. And this is me trying to sound smart through argumentation. Or maybe it's because accepting that there's no free will would be majorly depressing.
As for now imma go make myself a sandwich (hopefully, not because some butterfly died in the past, which led to the starvation of some butterfly-eating animal in North America, which led to the early extinction of that species, which led to the American people having slightly fewer food options, which led to us craving slightly more food, which led to present-day me wanting a sandwich), but rather because I feel like making myself a sandwich.
Hey again
ReplyDeleteFree Will, tough topic! It is often quite a shock to the system when we realise, that through any worldview it seems that our previous notion of free will fall short. However, free will does in fact exist to the full extent to which we can define it.
How might we define free will, firstly it has nothing to do with 'randomness' its do with making the decisions we WANT to make. For example, do the characters in a story book have free will? As far as they can define it, yes! As far as the author is concerned, no, the author has the freewill... but what if the author is the character in another's story?
This is outlined in Hofstadter's 'Godel, Escher and Bach.'
Second of all, as outlined by 'adawg' Quantum Mechanics debunks the Newtonian/LaPlacian idea of determinism and does in fact invoke a great degree of 'chance.'
Time travel paradoxes aside (these are either completely impossible, or will create some kind of parallel universe upon any such occurrence), we can safely that as far as we can define it free will exists.
You might want to check out Daniel Dennett on Free Will and Determinism.
Peace man, How are things anyway? When you going to college?
Jon Brod
hey guys,
ReplyDeleteI just figured out how to view comments on this thing, and I'm so glad I did. Your respective inputs have really broadened and informed my view on this subject. I especially want to thank Jon for reffering me to Daniel Dennett's stuff... it was pretty mind-blowing. And I had never thought of free will as something subjective either.
The main point that I was trying to convey was that nothing truly originates from within us. We are purely reactive, just like everything else in the universe, whether we realize it or not. Our reactions to stimuli are more difficult to trace and may take longer than most, but when it comes down to it, all the actions we take in our lives are nothing but extensions of the same reactions that have been taking place since the begginning of the universe.
Also, I don't know very much about quantum mechanics, but to me, the idea that our universe is based entirely on the completely random and unpredictable motions of subatomic particles is just as unsettling as if it were completely predictable. I guess that's just because of this human illusion of "significance" that we all get so wrapped up in.
Anyway thanks alot for the input, guys. I hope you got as much enjoyment out of reading my original post as I did reading and meditating on your responses.