Do you ever feel like you're making meaningful choices in your life? Do you feel like you have the power to shape your own destiny? If so, you're not alone. Most people believe in the idea of free will, the notion that we are capable of making choices that are not predetermined by external factors.
However, upon closer inspection, the concept of free will is an obvious contradiction in terms. After all, if an event is truly "free" and not caused by any prior factors, then it is essentially a random event - and not a product of our own choices or agency. In other words, to be truly free, an event must be uncaused by anything else - and that is simply impossible.
This is where compatibilism comes in. Compatibilists argue that free will and determinism can coexist, and that our choices can still be meaningful even if they are ultimately determined by prior causes. However, this perspective is a bit of a smoke screen - it's essentially redefining free will in a way that almost nobody thinks of it.
For example, when most people talk about free will, they mean something like "the power to act untethered to fate." They're not thinking about internal mental processes or the influence of their environment on their decisions. By redefining free will in this way, compatibilists are essentially dodging the issue of determinism and the idea that events are pre-determined by prior causes.
To make matters worse, even magic and supernatural powers cannot solve this simple logic problem. The idea of causing an uncaused cause is inherently flawed and runs counter to the basic principles of logic itself.
So what's the takeaway from all this? At the end of the day, the concept of free will is an impossible and incoherent one. While it's certainly true that we feel like we're making decisions and acting on them, this feeling is a product of our internal mental processes and the influence of external factors - not a supernatural power to break causality.
In short, if you want to feel like you have free will, go ahead and do so. But just know that this feeling is not based on any coherent or logical perspective.
I hope you find this blog post entertaining and thought-provoking!
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First, "free will" does not mean We create Our own realities. It means that within what We have to work with, We can make decisions. That it's not all pre-determined.
You ask:
"Do you ever feel like you're making meaningful choices in your life?"
Every day, all day.
And:
"Do you feel like you have the power to shape your own destiny?"
To the extent that being a targeted Individual will allow, yes. But when You spend a decade + trying to get a job (even though You are disabled and probably could not keep pace), applying to 35 - 50 jobs a day (over 130,000 in the 10 years +), having many job offers but then hearing nothing - calls and emails go unreturned - and on the dozen or so that You actually get through to someOne, They ALL sound very nervous, make up stuff as to why You don't actually have the job, and even catch One in a lie...
You don't feel like You're the only One with power over Your destiny.
LOL! Random and free will are not the same. Free will comes in deciding whether You will grab the top book because it's easiest to grab, or the bottom one because Others have handled it less.
if you believe free will is simply part of a causal chain
then free will is reduced to an emotion, a feeling you have when you make an apparent decision
if you believe free will, as it is traditionally defined, allows someone to "change their destiny"
then you are delusional
I believe nothing. But I do place probabilities high that there is no "destiny," that Now is the only thing that's real, and that We, with Our free will, co-create the Now.
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SID — Today at 7:13 AM
So everything a human can possibly do could be predicted?
Or what does this even mean
LOGICZOMBIE — Today at 7:16 AM
well, that's the most common misunderstanding
cause and effect does not equal "predictability"
our ability to predict the weather
has evolved over time
but the cause of the weather has remained constant
emotions have causes, this makes them subject to logic
LOGICZOMBIE — Today at 7:36 AM
emotions are like the weather in this example
our apparent inability to predict emotion, does not in any way suggest emotions are non-causal