Quote:
Originally Posted by DwnWthVwls
Can I try a different approach Chula? How do you explain free will when you tell yourself you want to do something but you brain just prevents it from happening? Here's a simple example:
-When I was younger my friends and I would all go to this bridge where they jumped into the river.. The lowest spot was about 20' and I really wanted to jump in, I love swimming but I hate heights. I couldn't bring myself to jump even though I knew it was safe and watched people do it 100s of times.
How do you take your idea of the concept and make it fit this scenario?
Edit: Or how about not having the balls to ask out a girl you like?
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But this still confuses the issues of (let's call it willpower) with will. Let's divide the process between two events. First the will is constructed, then the will is carried out. What you and Chula are talking about is carrying out the will, not the origin of will. That would have more to do with "willpower" - obviously Chula couldn't negate gravity and fly unaided just because he wanted to. And sometimes competing brain regions will make it harder for you to achieve your will (your flight or fight response takes over when you try to talk to a pretty girl). But these are all about what you do once you have the will, not the origin of the will itself.
"Free Will" implies that our will is freely constructed based on... nothing, basically. Just the whim of some spiritual entity that can act independently of the cause and effect events taking place in the brain. Behavioral determinists, like myself, or Sam Harris (to appeal to a known neuroscience authority) are saying that the evidence points to our will being constructed deterministically as a result of our biopsychosocial history.