Thoughts on Free Will?

Milofi is Known for Bizarre Polls

@gotrans Respectfully anyone who doesn’t believe in free will is either so religious that I don’t want to interact with them or is on some level willing to shift blame for their actions onto the nebulous concept of lacking free will. I have free will because all alternatives are terrifying and I don’t want to follow a belief system that strips away my own agency

Whatever The Answer Is

I Personally Don't Have Any Free Will, Maybe Others Do Tho

@gotrans I don't know what Will did so I can't say for sure.

@gotrans I’m genuinely curious why you don’t think you have free will

@chjara #FreeWill

@gotrans
In a physics sense probably not but in a political sense, definitely.

@gotrans
Like if you were an omniscient being that could see the speed direction size whatever of everything I'm pretty sure you could deduce how things will play out ahead of time. Human beings aren't omniscient, though, so socially and politically you have to assume people choose to do things because that's the most true-ish explanation flawed subjective beings can achieve.

@gotrans
Also I think you would like Absolute Martian Manhunter by Deniz Camp and Javier Rodríguez.

@shio my entire life feels like a multitude of innumerable forces coming together in a way that creates phenomena like "behavior" and "cognition". So much of what I do, feel, desire, etc. feels beyond my control, is it everything? can't say for sure, this is to a certain extent a matter of belief, I personally find it easier to believe I don't have any free will. Subjectively I still feel like I'm choosing, Ig. But I also feel like those decisions are the consequences of basic principles that are beyond my existence.

This has little to do with justifying harmful actions, maybe I don't believe people (or maybe this applies only to myself? Idk) are fully responsible for what they do, but that doesn't mean unethical behavior should be allowed. If a machine malfunctions then you don't act like that's justified because the machine had no choice, do you? (I apologize if the metaphor is offensive)

Overall this is just the way in which my mind copes with an existence that feels outside of its control, by choosing to think it is outside of its control, we still try to live, we try to change things, but we also embrace those aspects of life that feel unchangeable.

@gotrans free will is real. but personally i am just a puppet. my influence over my life feels minimal

@sleepybisexual I vibe with this

@gotrans third answer, does it matter? I’ll settle on a course of actions no matter what so why make a big deal out of if i ever truly made a choice in the first place

@desea this is a good answer

@gotrans The serious answer is that it doesn't matter. Subjectively, it's obvious one can do conscious choices. Anything further about predetermination is kinda meaningless.

@chjara @gotrans I think it is a worthy discussion to have. Personally I fall under the thinking that free will does exist but we’re very much caged by our material circumstance and past experiences.

@chjara I somewhat agree. It is not inherently meaningful but I don't think it is inherently meaningless either, the answer people choise to accept can be part of the world view that shapes how these people see the world and choose to act in it

@gotrans

@marisadoom

@gotrans beep.

like, technically it is me calling the shots. but theres so many external factors that i feel trapped

@gotrans I think a lot of human behavior is to some extent influenced by factors outside our control, environment obviously plays a part in what kind of person you become, etc. I’d be a different person if I was born into different circumstances, if my family were different people, that sort of thing.

But at the same time, I fully believe I have free will. I may not have chosen the specific options available to me, but I am the one who chooses which of those actions I take. Were I a different version of myself, who grew up differently, maybe I would have different options available, maybe there are fundamentally options that I’m unable to take for physical or mental reasons that a different version of me could.

But the options I do have, I still choose which one I take. I still think over my choices, I still behave in the way that I decide to. Sometimes I make mistakes, sometimes my choices are influenced in the moment by my emotions in ways I wish they weren’t, but that’s still my decision. I’ve worked hard on minimizing the effects negative emotions have on my actions and the choices I make, and I feel like believing I have no free will reduces that progress, at least to me.

I’m not in control of everything, there are things in life that happen outside my control. But I control myself. I can work on having better control over my actions, better control over my decisions. I believe in free will because I hate the idea that even my own actions are outside my control because it minimizes the work I’ve put into controlling them. What point is there in bettering myself and attempting to handle my issues if there’s no actual free will to my choices?

That’s how I feel, at least. I think choosing to not believe in free will might be an self-perpetuating coping mechanism, where if you feel your existence is outside your control, you’ll never be able to gain any amount of control over it by refusing to try. It might be comforting, but I don’t think I’d have made the progress I have if I allowed myself to feel that way. Everyone is different, though, so maybe it’s not harmful for you the way it would be for me, I can’t say for certain.

@shio I just see the aspects of myself I have no control over as deeply fundamental in a way that makes it feel like I have no control over anything.

for me, this doesn't look like being stuck at a single point, unchanging. You could still argue I've made progress, I think, but that's not the point of view I find useful

I believe in a fundamental essence within me, I believe everything I do is an expression of this essence, you could call it a soul Ig but I don't like that term because it carries a lot of connotations that don't necessarily reflect what I want to express... the point is, whatever choices I do make I do in reference to this essence, so the point I focus on is not something dynamic like progress but rather something more stable like an essence

thing is, I can't claim to fully know what this essence i have truly is, you could say that by trying to approach this nebulous concept I'm kind of creating it in a way, making it more definite, even if I choose to see it as some kind of immutable fate

maybe it is a matter of perspective, I don't really know

I focus more on ideals, guiding principles, instincts, than on my own agency as an individual, I see whatever agency I might have as an extension of those ideal entities

that helps me, idk

thank you for sharing your thoughts