Reply With QuoteYou can't make your own definition for something that has an encyclopedia article!
We already defined free will. you cant just come in here and change it.Originally Posted by Sylux
You can't make your own definition for something that has an encyclopedia article!
Hence I used Merriam Webster's dictionary.
I actually wrote my final paper in a meta-ethics class on the non-existence of free will and what meaning that has for both normative ethics and meta-ethics.
Anyway, free will does not exist. The human mind is a product of the brain and nervous system, all of which are made of and function via matter. Matter obeys rules which are pretty damn well understood. Causality, man, causality.
The thing is, of course, that the causal factors behind human decision making are byzantine and manifold and it is impossible to account for them all. So in practical terms, predicting a person's behavior with 100% accuracy is, of course, impossible.
And in case anyone wants to bring up the possibility of quantum randomness - so what. Random does not entail choice. It simply means your behavior is determined by random factors beyond your control rather than by ordered factors beyond your control. You're still a slave to causality.
TL;DR: The brain is made of matter. Matter obeys cause-effect laws which are rigid and pretty well understood. The illusion of free will is a result of the complexity of the human mind and the sheer amount of causes that produce the effect of behavior. There is no free will. We are all meat robots. Beep boop.
But sylux is still wrong, right?
Alright, jackass, I've had enough out of you. This is an opinionated subject, not one you can just throw everybody around. I don't like your attitude, and I'm already gettin' the feeling I ain't gonna like your opinion either. Why don't you go ahead and enlighten me, then.
Of course it's opinionated! Did you not read Cypress and I's debate over it just before you entered? We realized we both had radically different concepts of what free will is and compromised. You came in, did not explain until 3 posts or so later what you even meant by free will (absolute, 100% freedom if I'm reading you correctly), and claimed it as a fact. Don't try to imply you came in all "We all have our views on it guys, lets get along!"
And just so you know, that last post was supposed to be funny.
Well you ain't a funny guy, poophead.
Fine I'm a poophead. Conceded. Thanks for ignoring the first paragraph.
Okay, I think you remember the part at the end with the "whose looking in at us" or whatever. My theory was that it was God. then i realized that it didn't make sense, because there would have to be someone greater than him. But then I realized that since the Bible said he was omnipresent that it didn't limit him to one dimension.
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks