Free will vs determinism

  • Do we have free will?
  • Is everything already decided?
  • Mix of both (Plz explain)

0 voters

I’ve struggled with this idea. On one hand I want to assume some responsibility and personal power over my own life, but the way I continually fail to live up to my expectations bothers me, and in that vein determinism can be a comfort.

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We have partial free will.

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I don’t know but I believe God gave us free will. When I was psychotic or depersonalized, I felt like I didn’t have free will and that everything was mechanical. If we live in a computer program, there’s probably an option to change free will–so we have or do not have it. What did Philip K Dick say? That reality repeats? He hinted or suggested that there is no free will and that is the cause of deja vu; that we remember things because they’re so similar–same conversations and such. That someone or something changed a variable in the matrix from another reality which caused a permanent (?) splitting off into an alternative reality. My own personal experiences agree with his statements.

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From a theoretical perspective, your thoughts, feelings and states of mind can be accurately predicted.
These things are “coded” in our nervous system and dependent to some extent on our environment.
Fortunately it is probably impossible to create a tool that would simulate your brain and the environment it will be in, so you don’t have to worry 'bout it :stuck_out_tongue: .

From a psychological perspective, I think it’s ok to assume that there is only one reality we could live in.
Some people find it demotivating, claiming that the meaning of our actions diminish if we live in a world without free will. From a meta perspective, such mindset may lead these people to worse decisions while it all probably happens in a deterministic manner.

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I’ve been watching this video a lot! I want to read more of PKD but I’m afraid I’ll get paranoid :smiley:

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Forgot to add the bottom line to clarify:
In summary, no free will. But it shouldn’t stop you from trying to make optimal decisions as you naturally do anyway.

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