What is the nature of Free-Will??

Question

Do you really think that humans have free will.. that we are the masterminds behind our actions? Or do you think that everything is a chain reaction and that our thoughts, emotions, actions, and behavior are all due to chemicals, hormones, conditioning, and experience.

Basically.. if you can find a reason for why you did something, then you were not operating under a free will scenario.

example: "I CHOSE with FREE WILL to eat the hamburger instead of the hotdog"

in reality, you chose to eat the hamburger because you like hamburgers. you like them because of advertisements, conditioning, experience, your physical makeup, your general mood that day -based on interactions with outside systems..

the only choice you had was to choose the hamburger.. because that was what you were supposed to do.

Tell me what you think, and give me a really good reason why you think we have free will

And if you use biblical references to prove your point then.. well, i'm sorry that you were raised that way.

Answer 1

Because you have 2 scenarios:

1. the majority of actions are from deterministic factors by environment, genes, branding, media, advertising and all your decisions are based on those actions.

2. the majority of actions are from non-deterministic factors, genuinely uncaused.  You can have no responsibility for your actions if they are occur completely uncaused, you have more control where you've been influenced.

If that feels a bit week you are additionally bombarded with external influences daily, most of them conflicting. Why McD not BK, tory, labour, short hair, long hair, kids, careers. The fact that you can pick your way through that lot and maintain a sense of style, taste an personality is testamant to your free will my friend :)

Answer 2

Free will is a philosophical joke. Ether, as a philosophic property, has more substance.

Answer 3

There is no free will.

You are so much influenced by your chemicals, your genes, your past experiences, you barely have any choice for your choices. To say that we have free will is like saying an apple falling from an apple tree "chose" to fall. All sort of factors come to mind, the direction of the wind the apple is facing, the thickness of the branch holding the apple, the angle of the branch holding the apple, the weight of the apple.

Some people say quantum mechanics suggest free will. No, it does not. Even if someone proves that there are quantum elements in our brain, it still does not prove free will. Randomness does not offer any conscious-choice.  

Our choices are either:

a) Deterministic.

b) Random.

c) Both.

Non of them offer any "free-choice".