So I was kind of dissappointed when I read about “the solution to free will” in this article, since I already seemed to have figured out the answer! This I did during the first minute I tried to come up with something, as urged to in dissolving the question.
What I came up with was this: What I perceive as “me” is every component that is cooperating inside me to create this thought- process. My choices are the products of everything that has ever happened to me. I am the result of what has happened before these self-reflections of mine took place.
After reading in this sequence, it really seems to me as if the answers to the questions “what is choice” and “what is will”, is determinism. Or casuality + randomness, whatever randomness is. When I read dissolving the question I noted this sentence: Your assignment is not to argue that free will is compatible with determinism, or not. This gave me the impression that the solution didn´t care about whether the universe is deterministic or not. And now it seems to me that a deterministic universe was the answer all along. Have I missed something essential?
This argument will illustrate why I feel like not having resolved the question...
If someone blames me for killing someone I can say: Hey, I can´t help what happened before I was born. This was bound to happen, and even if it wasn´t, there was nothing anyone could do about it anyway, since the universe made this situation up. I can´t go back in time and alter every factor that led up to this. If the parts that is “me” could and should have stopped this from happening, I would not have killed him.
Now this is an old argument for why I have a destiny and am free from responsibility, if my will is determined by factors that I can´t override.
Your assignment is not to argue that free will is compatible with determinism, or not. This gave me the impression that the solution didn´t care about whether the universe is deterministic or not.
I believe the point of this meditation was more of getting to “I think I have free will because I have this planning algorithm running inside me and it feels like there are multiple choices which are reachable from where I currently am”.
The determinism of the universe is necessary for the whole explanation, but it doesn’t particularly pertain to why you feel you have free will in the first place.
This argument will illustrate why I feel like not having resolved the question...
It seems like you still have the idea that you should be able to influence the universe from outside the laws of physics, if you had free will. Like there being two distinct causes for the outcomes: You and The Rest of The Universe. Working together to bring about the future.
But since you are within physics the fact that physics uniquely determined the outcome, this does not mean that you yourself had no influence on the outcome.
Or maybe this link on compatibilism offers you a better explanation .
This didn´t help me though but thanks for trying. I understand that I myself is a cause and that my choices are the effects of that cause. And I also understand the argument that “myself” is something created of many things outside of myself, in harmony with the laws of physics. My argument for destiny still stands though. If determinism is how you explain choice and will (free will is just a pointless word I think) I understand that. But then you have to agree that my argument is valid right?
This was bound to happen, and even if it wasn´t, there was nothing anyone could do about it anyway, since the universe made this situation up.
Meaning that what anyone actually did about something was predetermined by many factors that we don´t know all of.
So I was kind of dissappointed when I read about “the solution to free will” in this article, since I already seemed to have figured out the answer! This I did during the first minute I tried to come up with something, as urged to in dissolving the question.
What I came up with was this: What I perceive as “me” is every component that is cooperating inside me to create this thought- process. My choices are the products of everything that has ever happened to me. I am the result of what has happened before these self-reflections of mine took place.
After reading in this sequence, it really seems to me as if the answers to the questions “what is choice” and “what is will”, is determinism. Or casuality + randomness, whatever randomness is. When I read dissolving the question I noted this sentence: Your assignment is not to argue that free will is compatible with determinism, or not. This gave me the impression that the solution didn´t care about whether the universe is deterministic or not. And now it seems to me that a deterministic universe was the answer all along. Have I missed something essential?
This argument will illustrate why I feel like not having resolved the question...
If someone blames me for killing someone I can say: Hey, I can´t help what happened before I was born. This was bound to happen, and even if it wasn´t, there was nothing anyone could do about it anyway, since the universe made this situation up. I can´t go back in time and alter every factor that led up to this. If the parts that is “me” could and should have stopped this from happening, I would not have killed him.
Now this is an old argument for why I have a destiny and am free from responsibility, if my will is determined by factors that I can´t override.
I believe the point of this meditation was more of getting to “I think I have free will because I have this planning algorithm running inside me and it feels like there are multiple choices which are reachable from where I currently am”.
The determinism of the universe is necessary for the whole explanation, but it doesn’t particularly pertain to why you feel you have free will in the first place.
It seems like you still have the idea that you should be able to influence the universe from outside the laws of physics, if you had free will. Like there being two distinct causes for the outcomes: You and The Rest of The Universe. Working together to bring about the future.
But since you are within physics the fact that physics uniquely determined the outcome, this does not mean that you yourself had no influence on the outcome.
Or maybe this link on compatibilism offers you a better explanation .
This didn´t help me though but thanks for trying. I understand that I myself is a cause and that my choices are the effects of that cause. And I also understand the argument that “myself” is something created of many things outside of myself, in harmony with the laws of physics. My argument for destiny still stands though. If determinism is how you explain choice and will (free will is just a pointless word I think) I understand that. But then you have to agree that my argument is valid right?
Meaning that what anyone actually did about something was predetermined by many factors that we don´t know all of.