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I would like to explore the reality of free will. In what measure are we humans capable of making choices and how much is pre-determined by what we are.
I'm pretty sure that everything is pre-determined. Nomatter how much you hate that idea I think it's true. Everything is meant to be and was always meant to happen. I'd say that in many ways our choices are pre-determined by where we are, as in historical time, location, socioeconomic status etc. We all have goals beyond the capabilities of what we can actually control. Everything around us acts to restrain us in some way, whether it be society where lack of money or power limits us, down to the laws of nature that keep up down on this planet, to the involuntary aging that we all must go through.
Information can never exist except as realized in a physical medium. No information can therefore be free from all physical effects and no information can be affected by anything that does not affect it's physical medium. Therefore the concept of free will is meaningless.
The answer to this question depends on the definition of free and will. If will means the goal of our brain's planning activity and free means free from any physical influence besides those who shape our brain than it becomes a tautology since our will would be purely embedded in our brains and can't be influence by anything not related to the brain. If free however means free from any physical influence it becomes a contradiction since the brain is a physical entity. Does it make any difference if we know that we have free will, or that we don't have free will? Will that knowledge change anything, or any actions of ours? Will there be any implications and consequences? Was it my choice to respond to this question? Was is pre-determined that I "show my free will" by replying to it?
Do we always do things in life that we want to? Do sometimes we want to do things, but have no courage to do them? Do we have free will, but don't have strong will?
Are we, or do we become?I would like to explore the reality of free will. In what measure are we humans capable of making choices and how much is pre-determined by what we are.
