The Science of Free Will
- Thread starter s_lone
- Start date
I think that it is one of the fallacious concepts that man is free ,has a free will. Of course, man is free to choose, but when he chooses he is already in confusion. When you see something very clearly, then you do not choose. Please look at this fact in yourselves. When you see something very clearly, where is the necessity of choice? There is no choice. It is only a confused mind that chooses, that says, “This is right, this is wrong, I must do this because it is right,” and so on, not a clear precise mind that sees directly. For such a mind there is no choice. You see, we say that we choose and therefore we are free. That is one of the absurdities we have invented, but we are not basically free at all. We are conditioned, and it requires an enormous understanding of this conditioning to be free.But obviously you don't have to agree that your will is a prisoner of your conditioning .
?China
Who's responsible for this conditioning?
I can choose the elevator or I can choose the stairs..... I can choose not to need the elevator or the stairs......I can fly up those number of floors I need to traverse..... I can choose to fly or I can .....
Who's responsible for this conditioning?
I can choose the elevator or I can choose the stairs..... I can choose not to need the elevator or the stairs......I can fly up those number of floors I need to traverse..... I can choose to fly or I can .....
I was going to contribute but after reading the previous posts I can't free myself to do so. I think China's post satisfies me most. I can't imagine free, but I can imagine will.
Why did you post this China? Does freedom have anything to do with it?
What IS true freedom China? And what is a will worth if it isn't free?
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular]s_lone .....The Science of free will .
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Why did you post this China? Does freedom have anything to do with it?
What IS true freedom China? And what is a will worth if it isn't free?
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular]Does Free Will Exist.....s_lone ?
We say freewill exists because we can choose between this and that. Apart from material things, why is there choice? Is there an action in which there is no effort of will at all and therefore no choice?
Why does thought identify with sensations? is there duality in identification?
How did thought begin in me? Was it handed down by my parents by education, by environment, by the past? Does the word create the thought or thought creates words?
Why does thought enter into action? Is there an action which is complete, total, whole, not partial?
Can you see someone as a whole being?
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Why did you post this China? Does freedom have anything to do with it?
What IS true freedom China? And what is a will worth if it isn't free?
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, Swiss, SunSans-Regular]Does Free Will Exist.....s_lone ?
We say freewill exists because we can choose between this and that. Apart from material things, why is there choice? Is there an action in which there is no effort of will at all and therefore no choice?
Why does thought identify with sensations? is there duality in identification?
How did thought begin in me? Was it handed down by my parents by education, by environment, by the past? Does the word create the thought or thought creates words?
Why does thought enter into action? Is there an action which is complete, total, whole, not partial?
Can you see someone as a whole being?
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There is choice China, partly because there is necessity, and partly because of metacognition. Many animals besides humans must make choices. They must choose when to stalk prey, which prey to stalk, when to give up the chase. Their reasoning can even go out the window when circumstances are unfavourable, and then they make more risky choices. These are choices made based on necessity. Thinking about thinking on the other hand, that's metacognition, basically what we're doing with this thought experiment.
Of course there are actions which are out of our control, that's a peripheral nervous system. You don't choose to sense something, your body responds to stimuli. You choose to look towards the screen, but you don't choose to breakdown the signal your eyes recieve into the biochemical processes that you eventually perceive as English words on the CanadianContent forum.
Your thoughts don't identify directly with the sensations, but rather with the perception of those sensations. You and I may look at the same object, and perceive it as a different colour, even though we sensed the same object. Choice only enters the picture after your body has filtered and processed these events. An example, did you really just see that, or is your mind playing tricks on you?
Thought is subjective, and that is a consequence of the inhomogeneities between sentient beings. Your brain has created different models of the same world that mine has. We haven't experienced the same viewpoint of the world. If you were to inherit my sensory organs through a transplant, would you then perceive the same world as I would? No. You would sense as I would, but your brain will decipher it differently based on your past experience. That's because your percepts are different from mine, and they shape the model your brain uses to decipher new information.
Of course there are actions which are out of our control, that's a peripheral nervous system. You don't choose to sense something, your body responds to stimuli. You choose to look towards the screen, but you don't choose to breakdown the signal your eyes recieve into the biochemical processes that you eventually perceive as English words on the CanadianContent forum.
Your thoughts don't identify directly with the sensations, but rather with the perception of those sensations. You and I may look at the same object, and perceive it as a different colour, even though we sensed the same object. Choice only enters the picture after your body has filtered and processed these events. An example, did you really just see that, or is your mind playing tricks on you?
Thought is subjective, and that is a consequence of the inhomogeneities between sentient beings. Your brain has created different models of the same world that mine has. We haven't experienced the same viewpoint of the world. If you were to inherit my sensory organs through a transplant, would you then perceive the same world as I would? No. You would sense as I would, but your brain will decipher it differently based on your past experience. That's because your percepts are different from mine, and they shape the model your brain uses to decipher new information.
From a practical point of view I say YES, free will does exist. From a scientific point of view, I have a hard time imagining how it can be possible, but from an intuitive point of view, it seems obvious that I do have free will.
To truly understand our conditioning is an endless task... But life gives us some choices to make whether we like it or not. Would we have invented the word 'choice' if it wasn't a reality?
MickeyDB ,
choose to be angry at the whole damn world ....but that wouldn't be to cool MickeyDB.
free v.t. make free, set at liberty, relieve from, rid or ease of, clear disengage, disentangle
Oxford Dictionary
choice n. choosing, selection, decide between possibilitys,---------OxDic
I don't see how the free part attaches to the choice part except to mean spontaneous choice not conditional on forthought of any kind. What could choice be free of? Choice cannot be free it depends on selection criteria, don't it? I think it's one of those english buzzterms that don't mean what they say. I think we mean choice of the individual. I know what the two words are commonly meant to convey but I don't think it's a possibility. As a matter of fact it must be damned confusing to children.
Oxford Dictionary
choice n. choosing, selection, decide between possibilitys,---------OxDic
I don't see how the free part attaches to the choice part except to mean spontaneous choice not conditional on forthought of any kind. What could choice be free of? Choice cannot be free it depends on selection criteria, don't it? I think it's one of those english buzzterms that don't mean what they say. I think we mean choice of the individual. I know what the two words are commonly meant to convey but I don't think it's a possibility. As a matter of fact it must be damned confusing to children.