WHY FREE WILL REMAINS A MYSTERY

Atomic Academic

Atomic Academic

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Abstract

Peter van Inwagen contends that free will is a mystery. Here I present an argument in the spirit of van Inwagen's. According to the Assimilation Argument, libertarians cannot plausibly distinguish causally undetermined actions, the ones they take to be exercises of free will, from overtly randomized outcomes of the sort nobody would count as exercises of free will. I contend that the Assimilation Argument improves on related arguments in locating the crucial issues between van Inwagen and libertarians who hope to demystify free will, while avoiding objections these arguments have faced.
 
Free Will, is not free. The Definition, is the ability to make both good or bad choices, and accepting the consequences of those choices. Just like how laws are made. If there is a law that states that you will go to jail for stealing, and you steal, you will go to jail. But if you do not steal, you will not go to jail.
 
There is no more free will nowadays. Nothing is free, nor the land, nor the food, nothing. The society owns us all. But we should own the society and bend it to our own will.
 
Well, I guess it just depends on us whether to follow our will or not. In life, there is always a wrong and right. And it is up to us on which path we choose to take. So yes, I agree to you guys that there is no free will anymore. Instead, good and bad choices that we have to make.
 
Free will is about using our freedom to do something whether it could be good or bad. Of course, any consequences we will have to take for our actions. This is inputting responsibility to that free will because without responsibility and accountability we will be in chaos and when we are in chaos then free will can be subverted.
 
Free will for me is a gift from our Creator that we should use according to His righteous will.
But definitely, most of us fails in giving value of having our free will. We are definitely held responsible for the choices or decisions that we had made specially if they are bad decisions. Consequences should be taken as a tool for realization and basis for our future usage of our free will.
 
AmazingP said:
Free will is about using our freedom to do something whether it could be good or bad. Of course, any consequences we will have to take for our actions. This is inputting responsibility to that free will because without responsibility and accountability we will be in chaos and when we are in chaos then free will can be subverted.
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I agree. In my own opinion, the right to choose whether it be right or wrong is a definition of free will. It's not a perfect definition just like its not a perfect world we live in. Different choices will render different outcomes that conclude to different possibilities. There are always going to be consequences good or bad, but the decision of what that is originates by you.
 
I don't think that really true that there's free will. It seems like a lot of freedom today is non existent. A lot of people may think they are free, but they're really not.
 
I guess I am not understanding how people can express that they think free will does not exist...while posting something about free will online. Free will is your ability to choose to do something. In the United States of America where I live, our freedoms do tend to come at a high price sometimes, people fight and lose their lives for our freedoms. But the price that some pay does not change the fact that all of our citizens have the right to make their own decisions. I do not see how someone being held accountable for their actions, such as going to jail for stealing, is taking away someone's free will. Everyone is allowed to make their own choices in their lives, but they are also responsible for the outcomes that happen because of their choices. Many claim to support anarchy, but I don't think those actually understand what it means. Anarchy, while seemingly allowing everyone to do anything they want, would really restrict people's safety and effectively restrict their free will. If someone wants to go to a store, but are terrified to leave their home because in their anarchist society they are risking losing their life, then anarchy is essentially stealing people's free will.
 
Wow, I've never seen so many miss the point in one place before.

The argument of "free will" has nothing to do with moral choices or their consequences, or "Creator"s, it's about whether "we" (or at least "I") are self-autonomous entities that control and dictate the choices we make (i.e. libertarian free will), or whether we are bound by determinism and are already pre-destined to make set choices in life like a chain of falling dominos, and we only have the ILLUSION of free will and decision making (i.e. determinism).

The argument for determinism comes from the fact that objects in nature tend to behave the same way under the same circumstances. For example, every time you kick a ball the ball goes forward (unless you suck at kicking :P). The ball never turns into a chicken, or flies to jupiter, or anything like that - it behaves exactly how we've come to expect it. It would seem there are "rules" that matter is bound to follow.

This is also true of chemistry. Chemical reactions - just like balls - tend to follow "rules" and always do what you expect them to do. An ion can't "choose" to be negatively charged when stripped of its electrons - it will always be positive.

Given that (as far as we can tell) our brains are nothing but incredibly long and complex chemical reactions, we should expect that reaction to obey the same rules as everything else in nature. And if your brain is making your decisions, and your brain is bound to follow the laws of chemistry, then whatever "choice" you make will necessarily be the one that your pre-determined brain chemistry illicits at that particular time. If that's the case, did you really have a choice to begin with?

Libertarians posit some "hidden variable" (e.g. "God-given" free will) to argue universally observed fundamental laws of reality don't apply to humans, because they like to believe in their own superiority.
 
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