Free will
 

Does it exist, yes or no? Subject came up in the shout box and I though it'd be an interesting thread.

I say no, but I'm interested to hear what MBers think. And there is no neutral option in the poll, sorry!

Damnit, can one of the mods add a poll?

Thanks a million to the ghost mod.

The fact that you have asked this question demonstrates that it does, whether it be an illusion in a relative sense or not. I've made the decision to reply to this thread and add a poll for you. The exact chain of chemical and electrical reactions which led to this decision are irrelevant if in my conscious mind I believe I have chosen to make it.

I'd say my action of making this thread is a result of my inherently curious nature and that I like debates of this kind (see previous threads I've started for examples).

Edited to add: I see more of what you're saying, but your arguing that choice is only an illusion then? Does that make free will exist then?

I will have more to say later, but I have to go at the moment.

Please remember to flush.

Yes. It exists. Otherwise this post that i'm currently posting would have been created already. Thus creating no free will for me. I would be posting posts that have already been created, therefore creating a forum made of robot posters with posts already created.

Make sense???

Now is that a choice I make or a natural response to the smell of defecation?

i'll take the stand of Philip K. Dick free will is illusory

it's all predestined

time is linear

you have already made choices before your brain thinks you had a choice

I'd say free will exists in those instances when you can't make up your damned mind, people just find it easier to rely on social obligations, natural instinct, their own experience ect. to make decisions for them. You find it when confronted with situations you're unfamiliar with and have nothing to base an expected outcome on, so yeah I'd say exists but it's a bitch nobody wants to rely on.

I'd say in those situations it's the natural instinct we base our decisions on.

I think 'choice' is a concept made up by humans to explain why we pursue one action instead of another, cause there really is only one outcome and no parallel universe. And free will is the human mind wanting to blame.

Also, what Il Duce said.