What would your stance be on this?

Question:what is your theory on free will and determinism? Do you think free will exists or is it an illusion? i personally believe in soft determinism since i think free will does exist and it is compatibile with determinism so both can be true. id like to now which approach you take on free will and determinism, Libertarian appraoch, hard determinism or soft determinism. in case your wondering what these eman hard dtereminism is basically saying free will is an illusion, soft determism i already explained and libertarianism is stating that free will does exist.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: what is your theory on free will and determinism? Do you think free will exists or is it an illusion? i personally believe in soft determinism since i think free will does exist and it is compatibile with determinism so both can be true. id like to now which approach you take on free will and determinism, Libertarian appraoch, hard determinism or soft determinism. in case your wondering what these eman hard dtereminism is basically saying free will is an illusion, soft determism i already explained and libertarianism is stating that free will does exist.

Free will exists.

Pick a number 1-10, think about what number you are picking. Think about the other number you could pick. This is the simplest proof of free will.

Determinists say that to have free will would be to act against the laws of nature. To that I give this:

"Man exists and his mind exists. Both are part of nature, both possess a specific identity. The attribute of volition does not contradict the fact of identity, just as the existence of living organisms does not contradict the existence of inanimate matter. Living organisms possess the power of self-initiated motion, which inanimate matter does not possess; man's consciousness possesses the power of self-initiated motion in the realm of cognition (thinking), which the consciousnesses of other living species do not possess. But just as animals are able to move only in accordance with the nature of their bodies, so man is able to initiate and direct his mental action only in accordance with the nature (the identity) of his consciousness. His volition is limited to his cognitive processes; he has the power to identify (and to conceive of rearranging) the elements of reality, but not the power to alter them. He has the power to use his cognitive faculty as its nature requires, but not the power to alter it nor to escape the consequences of its misuse. He has the power to suspend, evade, corrupt or subvert his perception of reality, but not the power to escape the existential and psychological disasters that follow. (The use or misuse of his cognitive faculty determines a man's choice of values, which determine his emotions and his character. It is in this sense that man is a being of self-made soul.)"

I think fate/God knows all the paths you can take - determination... but He lets you determine which path to walk - free will

As long as any choices are able to be made, free will exists.

Do you drink a Pepsi, or a Coke? Assuming you can get to both, the one you pick isn't determined by fate. You decided that yourself.

Of course, free will won't exist forever. When my plans succeed and I rule the universe, there will only be my will. All will obey. OBEY! @_@

Free will is an illusion.

When you experiment with the laws of the physical world, you duplicate the conditions as closely to the original premise as humanly possible and expect (and it usually does) to recieve the same result.

How is the human condition any different. If you take two people and place them in exactly the same situation.. Make clones of them, clone all their friends, ensure they recieve exactly the same stimuli they will always choose the same path as your decisions in the here and now are ultimately based on your past experiences and how you are predisposed to handling this information.

Knowing this to be true one can truely say that the free will both people feel they have is purely an illusion.

I believe they both co-exists. I don't believe there is such as a thing as 'free will ' though in the sense that we can ultimately do anything we want in spite of the boundaries we have. If this is true, then none of us have 'free will' because are bound by the laws of nature or even the laws of whatever country a person lives in. The problem is we use the term 'free' loosely. Determinism doesn't keeps us from having a 'will' of our own. I just don't believe we can change our destiny in the same way we cannot fly at will and defy the law of gravity. We can plan our way, but our steps have already been directed.