Why most Asperger don't believe in free will?

Post Reply New Topic

Not really. Look up the Libet experiments, and explain those away

There's no free will. What you're seeing is the last output stage of a human meat machine.

Give me a break! Of course we have free will, or free choice if you prefer. Our choices are not predetermined.

to OP. Have you taken a properly constructed randomized poll?

ruveyn

i am compelled by circumstantial inevitability to say that i believe there is such a thing as "free will". that was a joke.

i think that there are choices one can make between limited alternatives, and that constitutes "free will", but one can only "will" to do what is possible to do given the circumstances.
i can not "will" to make 2 million dollars tomorrow because there is no circumstance presented to me that enables that "will" to become reality.

people have choices that they can make within the microcosm of possibilities that are presented to them. "free will" implies i can do what ever i decide. i can not fly, so my will is not free to actuate that event.

example: i am in a 100 storey building, and i am on the 100th floor, and i have finished my business there, and i look out the window to another adjacent 100 storey building which is my next mandatory destination. i wish to get there immediately by merely willing myself to be there, but that is not possible.

the next best idea is to take the elevator to the ground floor and walk across the street to the other building and get in an elevator there to go up to the 100th floor. if there is no possibility of crossing the street to get there, then i may find that i have to use 5 different forms of public transport and travel for 3 days to get there. my will is then compressed into the inevitability of having to accept that course of action. i have no choice if there is no choice.

i am bound by circumstance, and i have limited wriggle room within the field of possibilities that exist for me, and i have no control over what they are.

some people think they make their lives what they are, but i do not think that is true.

there is obviously still a range of decisions one can make from stupid to brilliant concerning what is presented to them as possibilities, but one can never decide to do what is outside the realm of current possibility.

"free will" is just another way of saying "taking the path of least resistance", and if that path is still long and arduous, then i am a slave to it if i want to survive.

I believe in free will or at least as I understand it.

Of course there's free will, but people give it more credence than they should. We have will, but we also have genetics, circumstances of birth, defects (nearly everyone has at least one, it's like trying to find a perfect flower, perfect doesn't exist), and we have an unconscious (which most people deny exists at all, and even those who don't deny its existence have a difficult time seeing where it affects our behavior). Other people also exert their will, which affects us. This is what bothers me about the entitlement of the wealthy, they like to assume it's all about free will, and don't realize a lot of what they've attained is dumb luck.

I do not believe in complete free will because of our current society. If we truly had free will we could all do whatever we want. We could kill others, rape children, steal, etc, etc. ( I'm not saying I WANT to do this, but if we had free will we COULD do this.)
But instead we are forced to have a job to earn money to survive, we are forced to follow laws, we are forced to pay bills, we are forced to...

If we truly had free will, if we truly could do whatever we want, we wouldn't be living our lives like we do right now. And we would enjoy our lives a lot more, for as long as we can live.
Because actually free will is very dangerous. Free will means that everyone is allowed to do what they want and who could stop them from starting to kill everyone? Why would we stop them? They have the right to do whatever they want, so who are we to stop them from trying to kill us?
And even with this example I prove that free will does not exist. Because if people would try to kill us they'd have every right if they had free will, but that would clash with our free will, since we have the right to choose to live or die. So basically one of us would force the other to undergo their desires. And that is necessary. for the human race to survive as a species. We have to make laws and etc to make sure as many human beings stay alive as we possibly can, since that usually is beneficial to us. And as such we must damage or forbid free will, because otherwise the actions of a few might endanger us all.

Now, I'm not saying there is no will at all, but it's heavily influenced by a lot of factors and most of your free choices are not important at all. The things you can choose between is usually dependant on billions of factors and only a very small percentage of your decision is based on what you truly want, something that again is influenced by a lot of factors.

We human beings are social creatures and we influence and are influenced by others. That's just how social interaction works and that's how we can survive as a species.

There is but ONE thing we can truly choose without consequences or factors. there is but one action that we truly have free will on. And that is the decision to live or to die. That's the only thing we truly can decide for ourselves. But of course many people want to live, so even then I wonder if that is free will.

Physical law places constraints on what you are able to think about. For example, imagining an infinite number of stars SIMULTANEOUSLY would require an infinite amount of memory, which is also physically impossible because memory requires physical instantiation which requires space.

There is a difference between free will and selfish will. Proving that people are not systematically selfish to the point of mutual annihilation is not disproving free will.

I think it is impossible to prove that free will does not exist. Normally, this position rests on the assumption that the human being has a dual nature (at least), where the soul (freely) determines the body. This is impossible to disprove. However, the existence of a soul or other essence is not necessary to understand humanity, as science shows. If the soul is unnecessary, and humanity is entirely physical, I don't see where is the room from free will.

Can you prove that it does exist?

Absolutely not. I believe it doesn't. Still, there is no way to prove either way.

Totally agree- Schopenhauer/Nietzsche's version of Will is very different to 'free will', it's more an innate drive that we can't control and (for Schopenhauer) need to negate or (for Nietzsche) embrace or exercise. Not sure what I think about 'free will', I don't think it necessarily means a 'soul' (which I don't believe in) that controls the body but it does imply some form of 'I' or identity although, if you follow Spinoza/Hume, that could be a 'created' sense of self. Has anyone read Kurt Vonnegut's 'Slaughterhouse 5'? Really interesting discussion of free will in that.

When I hear of the term ' Free will' I immediately think of absolute freedom and doing whatever you want. That includes the ugly actions such as murder, theft and etc. In the end, you have the will to do EVERYTHING you want to do, every single thing.

And even then what is the difference between free will and selfish will. Us human beings are selfish by very nature as it is a way to survive in this world. As such I believe that everything we do is ultimately selfish. Even if we do something for others we also do it because it is beneficial to us as well. Because why else would you do something?

And I must ask, are you an agnostic? ( This has nothing to do with the original point of this post, but I do notice a similar thinking process.)

Just saw the neighbours' very pretty mixed kids, but promoted no.

because my mind is built the way it is, i will always make the same decisions no matter how many times the same situation presents itself.

if i was born again and the dynamics of my life were identical to this life i have, i am sure i would make identical decisions as i made the first time around.

i am not capable of deciding to do something i do not wish to do (if i am free to decide), and so it is inevitable that i will decide the same course of action no matter how many times i am presented with the same choices.

i do not have free will because there is only one course of action in a situation i will take even if i was born 30 times over and lived this life 30 (or even an infinite ) times.

i may think i have free choice, but it is inevitable that i will similarly choose what i will do every time i am presented with the same circumstance.