[yogurtssss]

So what do you think?

[eskielover]

Yes, we make our own choices & decisions to which there are consequences good or bad.

[TheDragon]

https://forums.psychcentral.com/crazy-philosophy/

[Crazy Hitch]

Yes. Definitely.

[Pavlov's Cat]

Sam Harris says we don't have free will, but we should act as though we do.

[mote.of.soul]

Yes, we do. None of this existence is a meaningless accident. I can see that now.

I believe humans -think- they have a lot more free will than they actually do.

[shakespeare47]

I've gone back and forth on the issue a few times. It seems as if our childhood, who we spent time with, our parents, where we lived, what schools we attended, etc, do have an effect on our personalities. But, it also seems pretty clear that we can know we want something, and then decide that even though we want that thing, we can think about and pursue higher order desires. (we want to drink alcohol, but admit we have a problem and have a higher order desire to give up alcohol).

Roderick Chisholm argues that we are agents. That we do have free will: Roderick Chisholm

Alfred Mele and Harry Frankfurt also have some interesting things to say about free will.

Most people act as if they believe they and other people have free will. They hold themselves and other people responsible for their respective actions.

Given that people are influenced by things outside of their control (see my first few sentences), maybe we ought to give them a little more slack.

[Carmina]

I think we need to see free will as a relative rather than an absolute concept. ie we don’t have absolute free will because we are neither complete masters of our lives and circumstances, nor are we fully aware of everything influencing or motivating our actions. However I do think we have relative free will in the sense that we can gain greater control of our lives through greater knowledge and self awareness and through working to manage our environments in realistic ways, but there will always be constraints on that. As Marx put it ‘man’ makes his own history but not under circumstances of his own choosing.

I also think there is a dynamic relationship between freedom and determinism, freedom depends on determinism because it is through knowing, and being able to act upon (which is where the practical limits are on this) what influences us that we become, relatively, more free. Our constraints are actually also our enablers potentially.

No. There's a will, but it's not free. Otherwise we'd all be rich

[Evil Rose]

I have free will. I do whatever I want to. I get in trouble sometimes but as long as I don't hurt anybody it doesn't bother me and consequences are just there to make it more interesting.

[Takeshi]

I suppose the question is badly formulated.
Peter van Inwagen

... I think it would be fair to say that almost all the philosophical writing on the problem of free will and determinism since the time of Hobbes that is any good, that is of any enduring philosophical interest, has been about this presupposition of the earlier debates about liberty and necessity. It is for this reason that nowadays one must accept as a fait accompli that the problem of finding out whether free will and determinism are compatible is a large part, perhaps the major part, of "the problem of free will and determinism".

Sometime ago, I found this webpage written by a high school teacher who was talking about determinism and compatibilism, I thought it was hopeful that teachers are up to date with current theories. Skipping on this logical fallacy shown in the quote makes people look stupid, and I am a bad guy for saying this, but this is just the way I live my life deliberately.

I like classic thoughts as well as contemporary debate on this issue. Voltaire, Russell, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, all had written about the meanings and functions of each words for 'free' and 'will', and I prefer the views offered by Nietzsche that says, free will is a psychological error among other things.

I can't understand this everyday regular/relative free will, it's about mere feelings and preference of trying to be right in their decisions or thought processes. Without the mention of determinism, I failed to see the validity of the answer "Yes, humans do have free will.". It's deterministic to say that I know what others have in an odd way, on this contested issues that has been debated for centuries.

What I think bad is often times good for others... I just think this is the question of how people think, this point was made by someone earlier, that's exactly right! And I'd like to add that it's dishonest to claim what one can't prove, it's just feeelings. Life's wonderment is much more valuable to consider, I'd say that it lacks will when one fails to express one's own thoughts with adequate/sufficient and intelligible words.

In final thoughts, I guess I could answer either yes or no to the question on the title, and as for the question of 'What do I think?', to that I say, you don't wanna know. It's a good thing that I'm thinking of mereological nihilism, or else you won't be having the metaphysical safety in my presence.

We act as if we do, that's what some people say. I don't have to, I can understand the world fine without thinking that I'm in control of my own thoughts. And I'm really hoping that the advancement of computer science, artificial intelligence research, or deep learning, whatever that is, can answer some,,, reveal to us what our ethical responsibilities are.

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”
—Aldous Huxley

Edited to Add:
Think of free will and online dating scene. We see plenty cases of willfully misguided and misinformed people, people may do well for having it, but it doesn't mean saying it casually and causing pseudo-problem is the right thing to do. People wanna show off their ethical standing, and I think it's quite cultural. Would anyone like to make an Argument from free will? I'm like a guy with poor design, sure I can try to be my usual self in front of someone like Ann Coulter, how long do you think it's gonna last? Everyone got different tolerance level for stimuli,,, doesn't it also seem like a line of boundary for our morality? As long as we are discussing the ethical outlook for the whole objective world, the foundation of the argument needs to be clear, it's just common courtesy, I say.

I'll be looking at Daniel Dennett next, he's a cognitive scientist, with Santa-like beard.

To the OP(Original Poster), be responsible for the society's legal competence, and express your opinion please. Why do you wanna know?

[shakespeare47]

Originally Posted by Evil Rose

I have free will. I do whatever I want to. I get in trouble sometimes but as long as I don't hurt anybody it doesn't bother me and consequences are just there to make it more interesting.

Consider this though:

1. You may do what you want to, but do you actually choose what you want?

2. The feeling you have that you have free will is consistent with not having free will.

Everyone feels like they have free will. The question is: does that feeling correspond to what is actually the case?

[yogurtssss]

Originally Posted by Takeshi

To the OP(Original Poster), be responsible for the society's legal competence, and express your opinion please. Why do you wanna know?

Hi Takeshi,

My opinion is like the majority here.

I made this thread because I thought it would be interesting.

absolutely yes

[Deejay14]

Yes as adults we have free will for,sure.

[Taylor27]

Yes we all have free will

[MuseumGhost]

Sometimes, most of the time.

It's long and boring; don't make me go into it.

[Oyvind]

Absolutely no
We don't consciously choose our thoughts. Our conscious selves (if there is such a thing as a self) are at the receiving end of them. What would choosing our thoughts even look like? It couldn't be thinking "I'm going to think [insert thought here] next", because that'd be a thought as well(when did you choose to think that thought) so it'd have to be something that isn't a thought. I can't imagine what it'd be.

So even if our decisions were based on thoughts (Libet experiment + many many other experiments suggest our thoughts are based on decisions) we still wouldn't have free will in any common sense of the term.
Our thoughts, feelings and actions are the results of brain physiology/activity and knowing that can be pretty liberating. It doesn't make sense to hate anyone for their actions then, nor hating ourselves for our actions/failures.
It was pretty scary when I realized it for the first time though, but it's easy to make your peace with it!

Originally Posted by Oyvind

Absolutely no
We don't consciously choose our thoughts. Our conscious selves (if there is such a thing as a self) are at the receiving end of them. What would choosing our thoughts even look like? It couldn't be thinking "I'm going to think [insert thought here] next", because that'd be a thought as well(when did you choose to think that thought) so it'd have to be something that isn't a thought. I can't imagine what it'd be.

So even if our decisions were based on thoughts (Libet experiment + many many other experiments suggest our thoughts are based on decisions) we still wouldn't have free will in any common sense of the term.
Our thoughts, feelings and actions are the results of brain physiology/activity and knowing that can be pretty liberating. It doesn't make sense to hate anyone for their actions then, nor hating ourselves for our actions/failures.
It was pretty scary when I realized it for the first time though, but it's easy to make your peace with it!

I appreciate this post so much! I am actually surprised how many people believe they have free will, without backing it up with any evidence. It's just one of those things that is assumed, I suppose.

But we humans have far more limitations than we think. It doesn't bother me to not have free will, actually it's quite liberating as you said.

Now for anyone who is thinking: "If we don't have free will, does that mean criminals are not responsible for their crimes?" Absolutely not. We are free to make conscious decisions when it comes to stuff like that, and we are 100% responsible for them. But that is not the same as free will.

[Oyvind]

Originally Posted by scaredandconfused

Now for anyone who is thinking: "If we don't have free will, does that mean criminals are not responsible for their crimes?" Absolutely not. We are free to make conscious decisions when it comes to stuff like that, and we are 100% responsible for them. But that is not the same as free will.

I think it sorta does mean that. We make choices but they're not made freely by our conscious selves independent of what our brain looks like/can do or prior causes. It certainly means we shouldn't inflict suffering on criminals (death penalty, inhumane conditions, prolonged solitary confinement). IMO we should send them to prison and do rehabilitation when they can be rehabilitated, or humane confinement when they can't.

[shakespeare47]

Originally Posted by scaredandconfused

Now for anyone who is thinking: "If we don't have free will, does that mean criminals are not responsible for their crimes?" Absolutely not. We are free to make conscious decisions when it comes to stuff like that, and we are 100% responsible for them. But that is not the same as free will.

I don't see how that could be the case. How could someone be held responsible if they don't have free will?

The way I see it, if free will then responsible for actions.
If not free will, then not responsible for actions.

Could it be the case that we sometimes have free will, and sometimes don't have free will? I wouldn't want to be held responsible for things I did in my sleep, for instance.

Cogito Ergo Sum (I think therefore I am) -

I argue against the position that unwelcome thoughts are proof we do not have free will. The point of Free Will as that we choose which thoughts to think to act upon. The very fact that we think about , consider, and weigh the pros and cons before we act on an idea confirms this conclusion.

The philosophical argument about the existence of free will is about free will Vs fate.

In my opinion, the ill-thought out and poor choices of actions due to mental illness is most definitely not about fate, it is about a diminished capacity.

[Trippin2.0]

Yes and no

(Leaning toward no due to societal constructs...)

I can choose to quit my job, nobody is forcing me to stay, because I’m so over it right now, being overworked and stressed to the max, not mention I don’t believe humans were specifically designed for this hamster wheel / rat race. So if I want I could exercise my “free will” and quit my job right now via WhatsApp...

But if I quit I can’t afford to live nor raise my daughter.

So where is my free will in this exactly?

I’ve made peace with the fact that my choices usually boil down to choosing the lesser evil, not choosing what I truly want in my heart of hearts, cos the world is not setup that way.

[Mike_J]

I think so but maybe I just believe this because I lack the free will to think I don't have free will