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Author Topic:   free will
Gzus
Inactive Member


Message 12 of 37 (27927)
12-26-2002 3:48 PM
Reply to: Message 4 by joz
12-26-2002 9:55 AM


quote:
Originally posted by joz:
Busy at the mo so I'll get the rest later....
That view would be fine if the those random events happened, disordered the system and then stopped and let purely deterministic forces take over, the problem is that the random interactions still occur so there will always be some random influence, in most real world systems statistical aproximations are very good at describing macroscopic effects and hence there is to a large extent causality in the macroscopic world, however other systems are chaotic and small fluctuations lead to increasingly unpredictable patterns...
But the point is that the disordering randomness of QM can`t be switched off to let classical physics etc take over.....

One of the aspects of free will is that it is unpredictable, but random? Free will also includes the ability to choose and randomness does not ‘choose’ anything, it’s just a probability distribution, no choice involved.
Then comes the next question, why do we choose? There must be some reason, or else how is our choice rational/conscious?
We make choices for reasons, if our choices are unexplainable then they are not rational or conscious. But if you can explain every choice that you make, how is your choice free? How can freedom exist?
{Fixed quote box - Adminnemooseus}
[This message has been edited by Adminnemooseus, 12-26-2002]

This message is a reply to:
 Message 4 by joz, posted 12-26-2002 9:55 AM joz has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 15 by joz, posted 12-26-2002 4:41 PM Gzus has not replied

  
Gzus
Inactive Member


Message 27 of 37 (33994)
03-09-2003 6:02 PM
Reply to: Message 26 by gene90
01-01-2003 6:29 PM


quote:
if somebody were to sneak up behind me and ballistically emplace a conical lead object in the fleshy, red, basal part of my neural net and therefore cause the entire construct to reach equilibrium with the outside environment, that wouldn't be murder would it?
rather unmoving isn't it?
As for free will, if there is nothing supernatural about the brain [i.e. it obeys a set of physical laws] then our decisions are by definition unfree.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 26 by gene90, posted 01-01-2003 6:29 PM gene90 has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 28 by greyline, posted 03-09-2003 11:32 PM Gzus has replied

  
Gzus
Inactive Member


Message 29 of 37 (34067)
03-10-2003 4:16 PM
Reply to: Message 28 by greyline
03-09-2003 11:32 PM


Re: Jumping in
You obviously need to spend more time thinking about this.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 28 by greyline, posted 03-09-2003 11:32 PM greyline has replied

Replies to this message:
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Gzus
Inactive Member


Message 32 of 37 (34136)
03-11-2003 4:30 PM
Reply to: Message 31 by Mike Holland
03-10-2003 8:45 PM


how true

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Gzus
Inactive Member


Message 33 of 37 (34137)
03-11-2003 4:35 PM
Reply to: Message 32 by Gzus
03-11-2003 4:30 PM


It is true what you say, that without some 'supernatural' assumption, consciousness is unfree. but one might ask how it is possible for a 'free' consciousness to exist or whether the concept is merely a human misconception.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 32 by Gzus, posted 03-11-2003 4:30 PM Gzus has not replied

  
Gzus
Inactive Member


Message 37 of 37 (34219)
03-12-2003 4:44 PM


Freedom knows no laws and yet our minds are simply anomalies of the physical world. Therefore we are not free. If anyone tells me 'we have free will', i will ask them, which part of my thinking process is free? where is this 'free entity' that chooses? How does it work?
If they manage to figure out how it works, then they have found unintentionally that it is unfree. On the other hand it would be paradoxical to say, 'it is impossible to know its workings'.

  
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