Do you believe in free will?

the question is confused because free will and moral responsibility are two separate issues, however closely you may think they coincide.

some people affirm both, some deny both, some affirm responsibility but not free will, and believe it or not some embrace free will but not responsibility. so let's be clear what we're talking about.

of these two questions, the more fundamental is whether free will exists. our notions of what is legitimate or not in the moral sphere have to come later in the order of inquiry.

I think Spinoza said it best: people think they are free because

(1) they are conscious of their desires and deliberations and intentions and efforts;
(2) they are ignorant of the causal factors that determine them to desire, deliberate, intend, try as they do.

Being ignorant of (2) makes us think we are free, when in fact we simply have a very distorted and self-deceiving perspective on what brings about our actions.

To my mind the sole reason that philosophers argue endlessly, but nonetheless hopelessly and usually incoherently, for the existence of a free will is that they cannot accept being part of the universe. They want their dignity as humans to be founded on their being a separate kind of thing, a separate substance, from everything around them; when in fact we know very well that our minds are one with our bodies, and our bodies belong to the tree of life (see Darwin) and the history of the universe. As Spinoza put it, humans have a stubborn but hopelessly unreasonable tendency to think of human consciousness as a "kingdom within a kingdom," a realm that has absolutely different and separate laws from the laws that govern the rest of nature.

You may be wondering if Spinoza or other strict determinists can affirm a notion of moral responsibility. My opinion is that self-knowledge is still possible under determinism, and self-knowledge, being true and accountable to oneself, is the important part of moral responsibility. As for me being HELD responsible by others, they can deprive me of freedom and lock me in jail if I violate the law, but that's just a function of living in society. Nothing mysterious there. Criminals need to be punished even though they, too, belong to the universe, and yes, could not have done otherwise than they actually did.

One last thing. It does help to feel better about determinism if you see the totality of the universe as an awesome infinite being, as God. This is spinozism, not just a straight up materialistic atheism. In other words, yes I am completely determined in what I am and what I do, but I'm also part of the awesome totality of all that is! And that's cool. So don't hang your head, and for Pete's sake don't waste the better years of your youth trying to solve the riddle of free will; it's insoluble.

I wrote this in another post the other day but it applies to this post as well so - At a basic level humans are just a vast network of complex chemical reactions, the majority of which are in some form or another controlled and regulated by the brain. However is a person their brain? or would it be more correct to say a person is their mind? And which one controls which?

The need for the term mind arises when we try to explain conscious thought. There is no outside stimuli creating the action potential for the thought process which means that it must be creating itself from within. From this we can ascertain that the person (the mind) does have the ability to begin chemical reactions in the brain which leads to neurons firing. This means that in the heirachy of conscious thought the mind is higher than the brain however if this is true how can we explain how outside factors like drugs which change the chemical composition of the brain have an affect on our conscious actions. Maybe the mind doesn't exist after all and the brain is what is in control and generates all of our action potentials, both conscious and unconsious. If this is true then choice really is just an illusion and we are just slaves to whatever our brains tell us to do, this may not be apparent for most people but let's take a person with a mental illness who may not be acting like they usually do (out of character), there may be an underlying chemical imbalance in the brain and that is changing who the person is and the choices they make.

There is free will on a conscious level.

I knew there would be a huge discussion about this. In my philosophy class we talked about it a lot. Its an un-resolvable debate really. The bottom line is that due to the uncertainty principle we cannot be certain of anything, so we cannot know whether or not our actions were inevitable. Like religion, its a debate where nothing can be proved nor disproved. Therefore we might as well assume that we are the cause of our own actions since it makes us happy.

Long story short:
You can either assume that you make your decisions for a cause or number of causes, or that you can make them somewhat randomly. There is no other logical option aside from these two. Even if you don't choose to believe in determinism (because of quantum physics and so on, and just for the credit I do believe in it), randomness in no way gives you "free will", the judeo-christian concept of it is simply pointless, and by the way - disproves religious far more than biological evolution.

We do have free will because God didn't create robots. You can choose to accept Jesus and the free gift of eternal life or reject Him. We also are accountable for our actions and will give an account of our lives. Choose life...

Everything that has happened and everything that will ever happen is a consequence of events that precede it. Whether that event is an supernova in a far away galaxy or some neurons firing off in your brain, the same is still true. And because the past cannot change, the same must also be true about the future.

We are all on a fixed path. There is no "free will".

I'm a hard determinist so no free will at all. People are technically responsible for their actions as their actions may be predetermined, but they were still the ones to carry them out.

On the other hand, since people can't choose to do anything but what they were already going to, I find it hard to hold any grudges against anyone or really blame anyone for anything.

In a nutshell, I don't believe in free will but I still think people should be held accountable for their actions.

Partly. No matter how much I want to be rich and how many wealth books I've read I feel I lack essential skills to apply it. It's just not in me and I hate it.

I believe that our free will is more like freedom within the constraints of our social and cultural conditioning as well as our evolved tendency to run with the pack. Defying our needs, conditioning and desires may be possible in the realm of our free will but it can hurt us and make us miserable while doing so (such as women who wait until the most acceptable time to have kids but in the mean time feel jealousy towards Mothers).

However, as said above, I do believe that people should be held responsible for their actions.

there is such a good argument for both sides, and neither has won in thousands of years, so why can't it be a bit of both? Light is both wave and particle....the universe is dual in nature. Choose to accept your fate, and in seeing it differently, one might take a different course of action....or somesuch mix

I believe in free will, but that all our choices are already known.

I could kill people for kicks...Oh but I don't want to. That is free will. So no duh. However since some humans are violent it mean all are like Jefferey dohmer. Does that make any sense?

Partly, depending on how you define free will. Everything that happens is the result of physics. Things that occurred at a sub-atomic level prior to my conception caused me to become who I am. The distinction between mental and physical is academic. In reality your decisions are the result of responses to stimuli.

That said, I can pause and type any word (shitburger, for example) I want without feeling like I was pressured by cosmic forces to select that specific word to fit the example.

Free will is also subject to your specific circumstances. Slavery obviously restricts freedom and as such limits free will. Anyone who is or has been an addict understands this principle applies to them to an extent as well. Available resources and cultural norms also influence free will. If it's a matter of survival, I suspect instinct kicks in a bit more than normal and your sense of responsibility shifts.

I suppose this discussion is endless as anyone who has taken any decent philosophy courses can attest.

~ "free will .. is an implanted conception .. of limitless possibilities and perfection .. confined by the moral fabrication .. of an entire worldwide population" ~

I have thought about free will pretty deeply recently and since it's 12:27 AM here and I'm bored I might as well comment something on that topic...

I believe mainly in Determinism or some theory closely related to it...

Personally, I believe that every factor, may it be your DNA, Friends or circumstances of nature or whatever from the beginning of your existence until now influence who you are... to be more precise every second of your life and everything you see and every interaction with your surrounding environment is affecting you and all of this together is the basement for everything you think and do...

In conclusion, you can say that what we'd assume as our free will isn't really our free will... at least not for me...

Dolphin

Man I'm so smart :)

It's not a matter of belief because as far as the human mind can comprehend, free will is fact.

Any argument to the contrary is so full of holes it sinks before you've finished hearing it.

Some people just reverse the free will theory in order to justify "fate", but that is stupidity personified. Yes it works on paper in reverse, but only because the free will theory is correct in the first place. You don't walk everywhere backwards do you? But you can walk backwards upon choosing. A fucking gimp question you have there Mr OP.

You have the will to suck my dick skin

I don't understand how people can't believe in free will and not believe in responsibility for actions. Do people blame things they do on something else? What?

Of course I do.