Okay ladies, I have an excellent theory.?

Question

I'm sure most people understand cause and effect... If you disrespect someone, they may develop a dislike for you. However, something inevitably was the cause for you disrespecting them, which in turn had its own cause. Now, if we may trace all actions to their causes, does this not mean that there was one single event which has led to all others? Does this not mean that cause and effect means that we have no TRUE free will, merely an illusion (effects of life experience impact on our choices, and are themselves caused by things not directly relevant to us)? Furthermore, if we have no real free will, is there a way to disprove this?

Answer 1

What you are overlooking is the individual's desire (emotional or rational) to BE a Cause.

If the dog next door barks and growls at me, that's a Cause.  The Effect on me can be a variety of things, to avoid it, to tease it further, or maybe the Cause is lost on me and I ignore it.  

However, I might, for reasons unrelated to that particular dog, decide to be friendly to it, speak nicely, show no fear, and try to make friends with it.  My desire is to BE a Cause, to change that dog's behavior to less aggressiveness toward myself, maybe even making friends with it over time.  

Certainly the dog's prior actions impact how I will approach it, but did not negate my own ability to decide what I wanted the future to be.  I decided to try to make something change, rather than letting the rest of the world, that dog included, be the Causal Force of All in my world.  

Free Will is when you choose to be a Causal Force to achieve a result you choose.  

Even birds that ride updrafts CHOOSE how to respond to it, whether they fight against it or ride it.

Any dead fish can float downstream, allowing other Causes to direct their action.  Free Will is when you make a decision to swim upstream for your own reasons.

I know I have Free Will because I recognize a variety of potential results, many of which are good results, and choose the one(s) I most want to occur, and decide which actions will be most likely to Cause them.

I'm a Cause.  I'm not an Effect, and I'm not some inanimate object that Causes impact.  

Answer 2

Ancient wisdom identifies a rivalry between necessity and will. In other words there is a destiny but through Will it may be changed. It is our human Will which distinguishes us from animals and inanimate objects. It is that portion of ourselves which is god-like.

Thus, in human relations cause and effect are certainly always at play, but we at all times have the potential to exercise our will and short circuit necessity; thereby transforming our destiny.

To argue that even this Will is purely the product of cause and effect is to seek absurdity. It renders everything nonsensical. It overlooks the fact that Will is exercising purpose not absurdity.  

Ancient wisdom understood that existence came from chaos or if you like absurdity. Existence is the movement away from chaos towards structure and meaning. The exercise of will is evidence for the discovery of meaning.

To deconstruct further is to seek absurdity and chaos - a modern disease.    

Answer 3

Cause and effect can influence our actions or responses, but not pre-determine them, thus we have free will.

Your theory sounds too much like determinism for me and also reminds me of chaos theory.

Answer 4

No. Cause and effect is cause and effect.

Freewill has nothing to do with cause and effect.

Answer 5

Free will negates the notion of a particular action inevitably having a particular effect.  To believe in a world purely as it is described in a physics book is to disbelieve in free will.  

I suppose the best way to prove that you do indeed have free will, would be to observe yourself implementing your will.  To see the possibilities and then to make a choice.

I think you can observe that choice in same way that you observe the blue of the sky.  You can see that you could do one thing or do another.   Of course, you could argue that that's just an illusion or something.  But you can argue that absolutely anything is an illusion, so what's the point.

Answer 6

I think what you forget is that with this definition, that would mean that everything is related to everything else. OF COURSE, that's true. Technically, everything you do is an effect of you being born.

It's like when people use the argument "well, that's just a theory".

Technically, EVERYTHING is a theory.

No, freewill can not be proven able or unable to be true.

Answer 7

um??

hahaah thats an interesting theory.

its a little, er, big for me but i think you can chose how you handle things such as disrespecting someone versus dealing with their action in a not-rude way, etc....

but woww. thats a thinker :]]

Answer 8

So you are saying if someone was abused by his father (cause) and then went on to abuse his own children (effect) then this means that all children who are abused will grow up to be abusers too?! Causes can affect your actions and that's that. To believe that we are slaves of our past experiences and have no free will IS to believe we are mindless beings who are incapable of making our own decisions. You can choose to be and do whatever you want, but most people find it easier to just follow the stream that's carrying them instead of doing what they want.

If anyone honestly believes they have no free will then they just don't want to take responsibility for their own actions which, to be honest, is a cowardly thing to do.

As to disproving it, I suppose you can follow two identical twins reared together and study the differences in their behavior. I remember our professor talked to us about studies that proved our actions are affected (and only 'affected') by our genes and our environment, but I don't remember the exact percentages.

Answer 9

Yeah me too, keep it in your head because you've way bad breath

Answer 10

SHHHSsssshhhhhhhhhhh

To early for this type of question... and NO, you are wrong, you are basing all of Humanity's decisions on a single decision at the start of time.

Michael...

Answer 11

It depends upon the perspective. On a Universal scale man is born, man matures, man marries, man breeds, man grows old, man dies.

Within that predetermined written cycle man may exercise as much ‘free will’ as he is able or willing to accept responsibility for.

Whether man marries once or thrice or not at all, whether he has one child or ten, whether he murders one or thousands, are all minutiae and largely inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

Whether he honours or reneges upon his vows and responsibilities, if he is sensitive towards others or rushes blindly wounding and destroying all in his path, if he is inclined toward loving kindness or a hate and loathing of his fellow man simply determine his quality of life and living.

So define free will  ... ?

Answer 12

You're right, there is no such thing as free will.  Logically, there are only two possible origins of our behaviour:

1:  Cause and effect;

2:  Complete randomness.

Neither allow for any 'freedom' in our behaviour.

Answer 13

Freedom or free will is nothing more than having the choice of the good. In the argument for the causation of the universe(the theory of the unmoved mover) God( the first cause) was described as a thinking on thinking. It was considered a being whose own thinking was its entire nature. It was considered pure actuality and therefore it is immutable. It is considered truth. Truth is existence. Whatever really exists is true. So since the unmoved mover exists then it is true. It is also considered perfect because its pure actuality and it lacks all potentialities. So since it is perfect it must be the pinnacle of goodness itself. Since its pure actuality words used to describe it are nothing more than synonyms of it. Truth, perfection, and good are all synonyms of the unmoved mover. Since the unmoved mover resulted in the existence of everything else it spread truth,(a synonym of good) which is existence. so then freedom or free will is the choice of the truth because you cant choose something that isnt true and because freedom is the choice of truth it is also the choice of the good.

         Yes there are some effects that influence us and are not our fault but as humans we have an intellect we can apprehend the truth(the good) so then we can choose the good. Because we have an intellect its our job to choose the highest truth( the highest good), God. The only reason there is great trauma in the world is because we failed to use our freedom because we are slaves. I mean slaves in much different sense you may be thinking. If one's intellect is faulty, one might fail to grasp the truth( the good) and in failing to see the truth one would end up choosing something that doesn't exist( true evil). So now that person be choosing evil, a lack of truth, a lack of good.

Natural disasters are out of our control but the most we can do is use our  freedom to wisely.

Answer 14

of course cause & effects and complete randomness are the only things to be responsible for our behavior. there is nothing else, those are the two factors. we cant act out of our own free will because there is nothing behind the action to be responsible for it, apart from those two reasons.

thinking about this will make your thoughts do a complete back bend.

Answer 15

Its not that excellent of a theory. There are flaws in your arguments and thinks that the disrespect beget disrespect is just a bad example of cause and effect and even compare that to free will.

1 WORD - FALLACY.

I just have a feeling that if I have to explain these to you more , we wouldn't have an understanding. Clearly, you defend you point of view vigorously even how crooked your arguments are.