Topic: Do we have free will?

[Patback399]

An interesting subject...

What say you?

[Lil Loco]

I could go and dance on my rooftop, naked while shouting at the top of my lungs if I wanted to...So yes, we have free will.  If you're talkin about freedom itself, given by your country...That all depends on your views of what ultimate freedom is.  I'm personally content with my freedoms for the most part...There are some things I wish I could do freely, but oh well.

[Patback399]

What if your freedom is an optical illusion? That you don't control your mind, but your mind controls you?

The mind is so complex. Studies were done in which your unconscious mind makes a decision before you (falsely) believe you have made a decision consciously. Your mind could trick you into believing you have control.

In a way, we do have free will, in that you agree with what your mind has made up for you all the time.

[Rabble]

What if your freedom is an optical illusion? That you don't control your mind, but your mind controls you?

The mind is so complex. Studies were done in which your unconscious mind makes a decision before you (falsely) believe you have made a decision consciously. Your mind could trick you into believing you have control.

In a way, we do have free will, in that you agree with what your mind has made up for you all the time.

Except in public.

[Dragon Of Grief]

What if your freedom is an optical illusion? That you don't control your mind, but your mind controls you?

The mind is so complex. Studies were done in which your unconscious mind makes a decision before you (falsely) believe you have made a decision consciously. Your mind could trick you into believing you have control.

In a way, we do have free will, in that you agree with what your mind has made up for you all the time.

I've said some pretty paranoid stuff in my days, but this is too bizarre even for me... are you a nihilist or something?

[Lil Loco]

What if your freedom is an optical illusion? That you don't control your mind, but your mind controls you?

The mind is so complex. Studies were done in which your unconscious mind makes a decision before you (falsely) believe you have made a decision consciously. Your mind could trick you into believing you have control.

In a way, we do have free will, in that you agree with what your mind has made up for you all the time.

Both parts of my mind are me...Conscious and subconscious.  The only difference between the two is that I infuse reason into my conscious actions, determining what the best course of action would be for that situation.  My subconscious relys on inner instinct alone, taking little amount of reason into account.  Regardless of which mode of decision-making my mind takes, it is still me.  The mind is the essence of what a person is.

Reality, as I know that you know, is based on the perceptions of the mind.  I embrace the existance of my reality and am content with it.  If the day comes where a greater reality presents itself, then hooray.

[cmonkey]

This is my least favorite debate because of what it implies.  I've chosen to believe in free will because it makes life that much less confusing.

[VulturEMaN]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand i go back to Kant...

Basically, Kant tells us that if we aren't sure of our own self (ie thought/soul) then our life's purpose is to find ourself.

But, if you have already found yourself, then you can continue to think about anything else.

but, alas, i think i'm forgetting alot that kant said on the subject. I'll try and reread his gigantic book later on this summer.

EDIT: Or maybe I'll just reread this instead:
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/ikfpm10.txt

[Elizabeth Rose]

This is my least favorite debate because of what it implies.  I've chosen to believe in free will because it makes life that much less confusing.

Yeah. It doesn't really matter whether or not we have real "free will" anyway.

[Patback399]

This is my least favorite debate because of what it implies.  I've chosen to believe in free will because it makes life that much less confusing.

Yeah. It doesn't really matter whether or not we have real "free will" anyway.

But that is the point of philosophy: to question what can never be known.

I'm a compatiblist. I believe free will and determinism work together.

[Elizabeth Rose]

This is my least favorite debate because of what it implies.  I've chosen to believe in free will because it makes life that much less confusing.

Yeah. It doesn't really matter whether or not we have real "free will" anyway.

But that is the point of philosophy: to question what can never be known.

I'm a compatiblist. I believe free will and determinism work together.

That's why I dislike philosophy. Pointless subject. Very difficult to earn an A in.

[Band8PGeek]

If we had free will, DJ and I would live together in a posh house.

Silliness aside though, I've often wondered whether somebody up there is controlling us like in a Nintendo DS game. What if one day the DS ran out of battery or was turned off? Scary scary thought.

[Dragon Of Grief]

I hate philosophy with a passion... one of my friends is a philoophy major and she could argue that one plus one doesn't really equal two... AND WIN somehow.

[Lil Loco]

Lol it's fun to use against someone who gets confused easily.

[Elizabeth Rose]

If we had free will, DJ and I would live together in a posh house.

Silliness aside though, I've often wondered whether somebody up there is controlling us like in a Nintendo DS game. What if one day the DS ran out of battery or was turned off? Scary scary thought.

We wouldn't know the difference. Everything would just shut down. We would stop functioning, thinking, and living, but we would not know the difference.