{"id":4380,"date":"2015-05-24T18:28:30","date_gmt":"2015-05-24T23:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/?p=4380"},"modified":"2015-05-24T18:28:30","modified_gmt":"2015-05-24T23:28:30","slug":"indulge-yourself-believe-in-free-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/2015\/05\/24\/philosophy\/indulge-yourself-believe-in-free-will\/","title":{"rendered":"Indulge Yourself – Believe in Free Will"},"content":{"rendered":"

Philosophers have been masticating the question of free will for many centuries.\u00a0 The net result of their efforts has been a dizzying array of different “flavors” of free will or the lack thereof.\u00a0 I invite anyone with the patience to attempt disentangling the various permutations and combinations thereof to start with the Wiki page<\/a>, and take it from there.\u00a0 \u00a0For the purpose of this post I will simply define free will as the ability to make choices that are not predetermined before we make the choice.\u00a0 This implies that our conscious minds are not entirely subject to deterministic physical laws, and have the power to alter physical reality.\u00a0 Lack of free will means the absence of this power, and implies that we lack the power to alter physical\u00a0reality in any way.\u00a0 I personally have no idea whether we have free will or not.\u00a0 In my opinion, we currently lack the knowledge to answer the question.\u00a0 However, I believe that debating the matter is useless.\u00a0 Instead, we should assume that there is free will as the “default” position, and get on with our lives.<\/p>\n

Of course, if there is no free will, my advice is useless.\u00a0 I am simply an automaton among automatons, adding to the chorus of sound and fury that signifies nothing.\u00a0 In that case the debate over free will is merely another amusing case of pre-programmed robots arguing over what they “should” believe, and what they “ought” to do as a consequence, in a world in which the words “should” and “ought” are completely meaningless.\u00a0 These words imply an ability to choose between two alternatives, but no such choice can exist if there is no free will.\u00a0 “Ought” we to alter the criminal justice system because we have decided there is no such thing as free will?\u00a0 If we have no free will, the question is meaningless.\u00a0 We cannot possibly alter the predetermined outcome of the debate, or the predetermined evolution of the criminal justice system, or even our opinion on whether it “ought” to be changed or not.\u00a0 Under the circumstances it can hardly hurt to assume that we do have free will.\u00a0 If so, the assumption must have been foreordained, and no conscious agency exists that could have altered the fact.\u00a0 If\u00a0we don’t have\u00a0free will, it is also absurd, if inevitable,\u00a0to blame me or even take issue with me for advocating that we act as if we have free will.\u00a0 After all, in that case I couldn’t have acted or thought any differently, assuming my mind is an artifact of the physical world, and not a “ghost in the machine.”\u00a0 If we believe in free will but there is no free will, debate about the matter may or may not be inevitable, but it is certainly futile, because the outcome of the debate has been predetermined.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, if we\u00a0decide that there is no free will, but there actually is, it can potentially “hurt” a great deal.\u00a0 In that case, we will be basing our actions and our conclusions about what “ought” or “ought not” to be done on a false assumption.\u00a0 Whatever our idiosyncratic goals happen to be, it is more probable that we will attain them if we base our\u00a0strategy for achieving them\u00a0on truth rather than falsehood.\u00a0 If we have free will, the outcome of the debate matters.\u00a0 Suppose, for example, that the anti-free will side has much better debaters and convinces those watching the debate that they have no free will even if they do.\u00a0 Plausible results include despair, a sense of purposelessness, fatalism, a lethargic and indifferent attitude towards life, a feeling that nothing matters, etc.\u00a0 No doubt there are legions of philosophers out there who can prove that, because a = b and b = c, none of these reactions are reasonable.\u00a0 They will, however, occur whether they are reasonable or not.<\/p>\n

I doubt that my proposed default position will be difficult to implement.\u00a0 Even the most diehard free will denialists seldom succeed in\u00a0completely accepting\u00a0the implications of their own theories.\u00a0 Look through their writings, and before long you’ll find a “should.”\u00a0 Read a bit further and you’re likely to stumble over an “ought” as well.\u00a0 However, as noted above, speaking of “should” and “ought” in the absence of free will is absurd.\u00a0 They imply the possibility of a choice between two alternatives that will lead to different outcomes.\u00a0 If there is no free will, there can be no choice.\u00a0 Individuals will do what they\u00a0“ought” to do or “ought not” to do just as\u00a0the arrangement of matter and energy in the universe\u00a0happens to dictate.\u00a0 It\u00a0is absurd to blame\u00a0them for doing something they could not avoid.\u00a0 However, the question of whether they actually will be blamed or not is also predetermined.\u00a0 It\u00a0is just as absurd to blame the blamers.<\/p>\n

In short, I propose we all stop arguing and accept the default.\u00a0 If there is no free will,\u00a0then obviously I am\u00a0proposing it because of my programming.\u00a0 I can’t do otherwise even if I “ought” to.\u00a0 It’s possible my proposal may change things, but, if so, the change was inevitable.\u00a0 However, if there is free will, then believing in it is simply believing in the truth, and a truth that, at least from my point of view, happens to be a great deal more palatable than the alternative.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tTweet<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philosophers have been masticating the question of free will for many centuries.\u00a0 The net result of their efforts has been a dizzying array of different “flavors” of free will or the lack thereof.\u00a0 I invite anyone with the patience to attempt disentangling the various permutations and combinations thereof to start with the Wiki page, and … Continue reading “Indulge Yourself – Believe in Free Will”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[178,29,66],"tags":[300,322],"class_list":["post-4380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-will","category-philosophy","category-psychology","tag-determinism","tag-free-will"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pwEq0-18E","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4380"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4386,"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4380\/revisions\/4386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helian.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}