Questions for those who believe in free will

For the love of the pursuit of knowledge

Moderator: Moderators

Post Reply
Rational Atheist
Student
Posts: 71
Joined: Fri May 29, 2020 8:00 pm
Has thanked: 11 times
Been thanked: 31 times

Questions for those who believe in free will

Post #1

Post by Rational Atheist »

I'm trying to understand the belief in free will. For those who believe in free will, do you believe that your actions are determined by a chain of prior causes or not? If you do, you're a determinist and do not believe in free choice, since you can't control the causes that took place before you were born. If you don't believe your actions are determined by a chain of prior causes, or don't believe that that causal chain extends to before your birth, then you believe that at some point before your action, an event occurred for no reason whatsoever (purely random). How could this possibly get you free will either? No combination of determinism nor indeterminism (randomness) gives you "free will" in the sense of authorship of and responsibility for your actions. How can you believe anyone is ultimately responsible for what they do?

User avatar
William
Savant
Posts: 14003
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2012 8:11 pm
Location: Te Waipounamu
Has thanked: 906 times
Been thanked: 1629 times
Contact:

Re: Questions for those who believe in free will

Post #241

Post by William »

[Replying to The Tanager in post #241]
If [y]our position is the purple dot - what is the most economic way in which you can view the blue object?;
Image

Identifying Free Will

User avatar
The Tanager
Prodigy
Posts: 4977
Joined: Wed May 06, 2015 11:08 am
Has thanked: 45 times
Been thanked: 149 times

Re: Questions for those who believe in free will

Post #242

Post by The Tanager »

[Replying to William in post #243]

Climb to one of the peaks?

User avatar
Miles
Savant
Posts: 5179
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2009 4:19 pm
Has thanked: 434 times
Been thanked: 1614 times

Re: Questions for those who believe in free will

Post #243

Post by Miles »

William wrote: Mon Jul 19, 2021 12:10 pm [Replying to The Tanager in post #241]
If [y]our position is the purple dot - what is the most economic way in which you can view the blue object?;
Image

Identifying Free Will
They both appear to be blue to me, but if by "purple" you mean the dot to the lower left, I suppose the most "economical" way to see the higher dot would be to somehow go to the next peak.


.

Post Reply