What if the sum of what you do as a human being is simply a response to biological impulses and there is no free will!? I know a lot of scientists believe this and it got me really depressed!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
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Position:Home>Philosophy> Philosophical question please answer posted below?Question: Philosophical question please answer posted below!? What if the sum of what you do as a human being is simply a response to biological impulses and there is no free will!? I know a lot of scientists believe this and it got me really depressed!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: The reason these scientists believe free will is a response to biological impulses is because free will is always discovered in its own limiting space and we first encounter this limiting space as our biologically defined environment!. Let me explain: Operationally speaking, we first encounter freedom as the freedom to act!. Satisfying our biological needs frames this freedom!. Free will and all it entails, is not just a response to biological stimulus, however!. The freedom to avoid the unpleasant and pursue the pleasant has the indirect effect of creating the environment out of which all other freedoms are expressed!. On another level, a higher level, phenomenological freedom expresses the question that theoretical freedom answers (the freedom to be logically consistent)!. This answer, scientifically speaking, is verified through its reliable predictions as they relate to our aesthetic experience!. This answer, sociologically speaking, allows for behavioral change and emotional growth!. In other words, as a dynamic process, freedom (or lack there of) is continually being discovered in the “universal limiting space that defines it!.” As knowledge accumulates, for instance, life’s expectations and goals may change!. The value and meaning of relationships may change!. What at one time was sought for pleasure and comfort may, with increased understanding, become unpleasant, and so on and so forth!. But there is another kind of freedom, one that escapes categorizations!. This is Buddhist freedom-- a freedom we cannot sense, a freedom that is by definition indeterminate!. Even so, paradoxically, much has been said (and written) about this freedom!. Fortunately, the Japanese sage, and student of Zen Buddhism, Nishida Kitaro, has discussed Buddhist freedom without venturing outside the “limiting space” framework of freedom!. A description of Buddhist freedom is outside the scope of your question, so enough said!. But, I hope the above has discredited the behaviorist credo that we are only free to respond to the pleasure/pain reality of our biological environment!. Www@QuestionHome@Com I think the majority of what we do is biologically inclined!. However, there are times when rather than doing what I think is right or what I am comfortable with, I do the opposite!. I don't think reasoning is biological!. It's when we do something without thinking about it and without weighing consequences that we are going with some sort of biological response!. The ideal of humanity and morality is greater than biology!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Kind of!. It's not that free will doesn't exist in the fact that you have no control over your choices!. Free will doesn't exist in the sense that no matter what you do, you're "naturally" inclined to choose that!. The "natural" forces that affect your decisions are exactly what you call free will: the ideas of others, what you perceive yourself, your emotions (which are caused by hormones, etc), etc!. Simply put, all the things you're considering while deciding affect you in a way that can be theoretically predicted if every factor was known (like your entire genetic make-up, every thought you've ever had in your life, etc)!. All of these things accumulate into you making your decision, so your decision isn't so much a force of will as a culmination of the forces that have shaped you!.Www@QuestionHome@Com The argument against the existence of free will is mainly illustrated by determinists!. They think believe that we are subject to the laws of cause and effect that govern the rest of nature, so every one of our actions is ultimately decided by a number of external and internal causes!. So, in this sense we are not "free" do really do as we choose!. However, the illusion of freedom that most people possess is a hard one to shake, even with this knowledge!. Furthermore, although your path may be laid out already, you are not capable of predicting this path, so there is still the excitement of seeing what is to come!. If you still think as if you are free, you will not notice that in fact you are not free!.Www@QuestionHome@Com If you need to feel special, buy a dog!. Free will is an artificial construct designed to get God off the hook for human misbehavior!. Think about it!. What is 'free' will free from!? Causality!? If our decisions are not always based on our experiences what are they based on!? Chaos!? OK!. Let's say you've got a big dose of randomness in your decision tree, does this make you feel better!? The notion of 'free will' means nothing & changes nothing!.Www@QuestionHome@Com We have the free-will to act, or not act, on our impulses!. I had the impulse to answer this, but I choose to do it!. I could have ignored it!. ;)Www@QuestionHome@Com I don't believe it !.!.!.seriously, some people think we are basically programmable puppets controlled by someone somewhere out there!.Www@QuestionHome@Com well, if that were the case you couldn't do anything about it anyway, so there's no real use in thinking about it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Well, what do you mean by "what if"!? What about it!?Www@QuestionHome@Com !.!.!.sum is to live your life!.!.!. !.!.!.not let them live it for YOU!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |