@@jocaingles8464 get someone else anonymous to bring it to the judge for you, so the judge doesn’t know who it’s from so that it won’t effect their decision in the case and won’t be seen as bribery by the judge.
That's the point of being a human... all though i do agree with the fact that we tend to overthink on stuff that gives us no benefit by overthinking about it (in some cases even harming us by doing so) but if not the constant desire to solve more puzzles, we would've been no different than the apes we were at the beginning.
Yea, but if we didn't think about things a lot then there would be no such thing as internet, or medicine, or indoor plumbing, which solve a lot of problems.
I saw "soap" too, and I"m usually very aware of causation in many of my thoughts (lots of meditating) if I'm not in a stressful environment. While I can never be absolutely sure this is the proximate cause, I had previously seen an ad depicting a woman in the shower who I found quite attractive, and that memory popped into my consciousness the moment I saw the letters SO_P. So I was primed (very probably) by that commercial in some sense. I also just ate, and was not hungry.
Without seeing through the illusion you can't pull back the curtains where the lie is ALWAYS opposite the truth. Yes the truth is a lie, but a lie isn't necessarily the truth. Great... now I'm hungry
Society has an "immune system" which removes members that are not beneficial. So your best bet would be to offer something useful. Example, if you are a thief, teach people how to protect against other thieves.
I used to be scared by the thought that we do not have a free will, but the more I thought about it, the more sense the whole concept made. What was really upsetting at first, and I guess it is what most people find scary about it, was the notion that with free will me as a person just faded away. But I realized that my desires, emotions and believes are still what define me and that I have been acting accordingly to them my whole life. So in reality, nothing had changed.
Paul Panzer It takes a long time to change the inner workings. Do not fall for this simplistic way of thinking about Consciousness. "Free will" is fundamental to change, and Change excists no matter how you put it
Then please enlighten me about how free will is fundamental to change. It seems to me that physical laws like entropy, the laws of thermodynamics and such are much more fundamental to change than any concept of free will can be. The behaviour of any given material in a closed system, the development of the human body, how to effectivly alter areas ot the brain - all of this and much more we can describe using naturalistic explanation. So if we see for example that mediation has an effect on the brain - why bring free will into it? There is just no need for it.
Well, it's not like they chose to be ignorant lol. All we can do is spread the word and teach the science and hope that people come to the right conclusion.
If you or they are not in control that results in zero empathy. Seriously read some history. Warfare is rife with examples. Submit to a higher authority, our lack of control, allows us to kill easier and be less empathetic.
+Sam Fraser I was responding to the OP... whatever. I would actually argue that empathizing with wrongdoers also has utility (and since it is easy to sympathize with victims it actually might be more important) and neither empathizing nor sympathizing equals affirmation or encouragement of the behavior. The utility of empathizing lies primarily in understanding how the same factors could influence oneself (thus maybe avoiding them), sympathizing helps with not going overboard on what we might call "justice" and leaves a return to accepted society open. Anyway, If you want to argue empathy or anything else for that matter I am up for it, though I may take a day or two to respond right now...
You can. If I am depressed , and I want to be happy. But my brain chemistry doesn't allow me to be happy now, so I will go to psychiatrist and pop some pills and can feel relaxed but after I am relaxed I can decide to hang out and be happy or go for meditation which will calm me down. All these changed my brain chemistry because I took the action. I can choose to want what I want.
@@TarotRider-t2m your mind chose to make you choose what you want. Your past actions and your surroundings too. If you were raised in a household and community, where mental health was a taboo and being depressed was nothing but natural (these factors are amongst innumerable others), you wouldn't have chose to seek mental help
@@TarotRider-t2m Why do you wanna be happy? Can you choose to want to stay depressed? Why were your suicidal urges not enough to make you want to commit suicide?
This just assumes that “you” aren’t that collection of thoughts and feelings. As if they are acting on something else that is “you”. If the “you” is this collection of experiences then you don’t have free will you ARE free will. “You” are the decision making process not an outside observer of the output. This idea I think puts consciousness more primary and accepting its reality and THEN explaining the world.
That is exactly what I was thinking, if we are the sum of our experiences doesn't that mean we are truly making a decision because those experiences actually make up who we are?
This comment is spot on. This video emphasizes what an absurd emergent property free will would be and acts like it's only "free" if it's independent of external factors while whittling away what could count as internal factors till there's nothing left which is a standard that consciousness and self-awareness could never holdup to ether especially the being unaffected by alcohol part. We have no serious doubts about those things because we experience them. We experience free will too but some folks are in denial about it. I suspect they have made choices they regret and would rather not be responsible for.
@@paulharland7280 but WHY do people make the choices they make? What influences those choices? If those factors are beyond your control then how is your will truly free?
Paul Harland The only thing that makes us choose things is our wants, by which I mean the uncontrollable desires from feelings, beliefs and general biological instincts. If you go to the gym even though you think it’s uncomfortable, your wants to be healthy where greater than the wants to relax. If you’re deciding if you are going to buy a muffin or a donut, and you want the muffin and there is nothing to stop you, you’re going to chose the muffin. If you then realize that the muffin contains palm oil (let’s say you care about nature), and you then choose to buy the donut instead (which in this case doesn’t contain palm oil), your wants to help nature were greater than your wants to have the muffin. And none of this is free. We work through cause and effect. If we would have free will, that would mean that we could do things independent of any causal chain, in other words: do things because of no reason, which we can’t.
That heatmap at 15:10 is one of the most beautiful things I've seen in a long time. Love is really in the heart, envy in the head, happiness everywhere, anger in the chest and arms. That's incredible.
I know I’m not the only one experiencing this, TH-cam and Google has been correctly showing contents that I’ve thought of earlier, that’s way too accurate to be coincidence, and too often
when you think about it, you tube and the internet as a whole are like a brain, with individual computers being the neurons and humans being the physiological element that directs the thoughts of the internet. humans are becoming one large macro-organism
Evil JohnnyBravo One guy pointed out that the internet could very well be a conscious mind, a collective result of all our interactions. Several people argued that's nonsensical. Each of us is an individual mind, so how can we possibly be part of Internet's consciousness? One guy replied: imagine two neurons talking in your brain. 'What is this Human you're talking about? Everyone knows Humans don't exist, there's only us neurons communicating to each other!'
The weird thing is, once you realize all this systems that drive your thinking and actions and desires and stuff, you feel like you, the consciousness, exists apart from those systems and stuff. So now you still feel you have free will but just more like in a cage. You feel like you are not responsible for the desires you get, but you feel they are an input to YOU from the brain, but you don't feel like you ARE the brain. I wonder how far we can go like this. What if science breaks down our brain to every atom. and explains every single process that makes it work. Would I still feel like I exist apart from all that, lol?
Thats exactly the thing that drives me crazy. Especially when I have low dopamin levels due to drugs or masturbation abuse my body is acting like an autopilot and my "consciousness" is like an observer at this time. By time when I abstain from these things an begin to workout/meditate and be more aware of the surrounding I feel more conciouss then.
Plus every decision is made based on past decisions/experiences, even unconscious choices are based on past experiences. Everyone always does what they think is best be it best for the world, best for their family/friends, or best for themselves. There’s never a time when it’s left to “chance”, even flipping a coin the outcome can be determined with a few relatively simple math equations. I’m sure there’s absolutely no free will.
In Eastern Philosophy, the "pure, unconditioned consciousness" you describe is known as the Ātman (आत्मन्). It is sometimes translated as the Self. Different schools of thought interpret the nature and essence of this Self in ways ranging from equating it with the eternal, underlying, all-pervasive reality of the universe (as in Advaita Vedanta) to denying that it ultimately or truly exists and that one is impermanent and devoid of a soul (as in Theravada Buddhism).
Very interesting and thought provoking argument. Here is my take: There isn't really any "true self" to become diverted from, because while we think of the self as an entity it is actually more akin to a continuous process, ever changing with outside input. What you might think of as the "default you" - sober, unstressed - isn't any more valid or true than the you during a high fever, an acid trip, or under the effects of a brain tumour. It is all the same, ever changing self, subjected to different outside stimuli. When you argue that there is no free will because the self is always influenced by outside stimuli, you accept the notion that there is an underlying "true self" separate from these effects, and that the less influenced you are by them, the more genuinely you you are. This hypothetical "true self", however, could never actually be encountered, because the self disappears at the moment we stop interacting with outside stimuli i.e when we die. In other words: the self is not separate from how we interact with the world, the self _is_ the process by which we do. What you call inhibitions, are really just modifiers and alterations, but the deductions you make aren't any less valid with or without them in regard to being "your choices". There isn't any way that the self could be any more in control of its choices than it is - our will is exactly as free as it can be.
i was hoping for a more buddhist perspective in the comments, thanks for the idea. The question of "you" having free will doesn't make much sense does it?
My take is that in order to have free will there'd have to be a "free self" transcendent to the material world that can make choices free from material influences. I agree with the fact that the "true self" is your entire body and the effects of the world on it and that every "choice" you make is still yours although it is entirely determined by the physical world
I love this thought here, was starting to think along these lines watching the video (I study zen buddhism a little these days) and you articulated it way better than I could have. Thinking that there is a 'true self' as something other than this whole being you're occupying is a fractured, divorced way of looking at things - it is more true and simply just happier to think of it all as one and the same. You're you. Something like that. :b
It’s bc u program yourself, you keep thinking abt food over and over again. it went to your subconscious mind bc now you dont need to think it anymore bc u programmed it to your subconscious to make that thought be on auto pilot. That’s why manifestation works :) bc we program it by saying/writing whatever goal or desires we want over and over again until it’s stuck to our subconscious. Then our subconscious does the rest of the work. Well and of course us taking the necessary action to get to that goal or desire;)
@@maxis2k I also want to know how this work. I did grocery shopping and the last thing I did before watching this video was putting liquid soap in the bathroom dispenser and this liquid was really thick compared to the one I usually buy, making the process longer. Is that the reason I said SOAP? Is it because I was treating the background imagines as non important, and eating soup wasn't something I paid attention to? Is it because I live in the past and can't be in the present moment? Is it because while learning English as an ESL i had more examples on soap in exams? Write in the names. 10 points each: 🍯 Honey 🧂 Salt 🧼 Soap
I definitely agree with lots of this except the complete inhibition of free will. I don't think it goes away, just becomes more difficult to use. However, I do believe we have no free will because everything that happens is just a reaction of many things that happened, which are themselves a result of many things that happened, and so on and so on, until the beginning of the Universe, the first thing to ever happen. And while it might seem random, it isn't. An explosion in a circle will move all particles with equal energy and in an outward direction. If some particles are in different positions or different distances, they will receive different energy, which will affect as well how much energy the other particles receive and in what direction they move. So the beginning of the Universe has set all forces in motion which will travel just in response to everything that goes around. This way, everything becomes predictable, and we have no free will. The past, present and future are a domino effect set in motion by the beginning of the universe. Even ourselves, everything inside us, and outside of us, even what we do. Thus we have no free will. . In my case, though, I am a Christian, and I believe in Calvinism. I forget about it and go along with what I think and what I feel, and I don't think it matters if I keep in mind or not that I don't have free will, because either way, I will do what I will do. And I am fine with it anyway. I also understand I am not in control of my life. I might be in control of my actions (from a free will perspective) but I am not in control of what happens to me or what opportunities I will get in life. In other words, do what you will, because you have no free will anyway. And when I preach to someone, I don't believe it is free will for me to preach or not preach, just what happens. Same, I believe it is not that person's free will to accept Christ or not. And if they don't, it is not my free will to keep trying or not. And it is not their free will to be able to resist or not.
Yeh calvinists are compatiblists and thus not hard determinists. But religions are sketchy arnt they, some religious people tend to chop and change parts of their religions to fit in with the science, it's quite sad really that they just can't let go of it but they've probably been brainwashed since they were kids by parents that they trusted and admired. I do feel for them at times, poor fools.
I don't think anyone really believes they don't have free will: the guy that made this video doesn't even believe it, as seen by how at the end he says, "This kind of thinking allows you to control your behaviours more effectively." After all this rhetoric, he merely *thinks* he doesn't believe in free will. But he has actually just changed his definition of the term. Instead of deciding what you do, you just "benefit from a logical examination of" what you learn and eat and drink and think and with whom you hang out and "the habits you engage in". We don't control ourselves, he says, we control the factors that control ourselves. We don't drive the car, we just turn the wheel and press the pedals and operate the air conditioning. Totally out of our control. It seems to me like denying free will allows a person, more than anything, to stop feeling guilty for their own shortcomings. "It wasn't me", you can say. "It was what I ate for breakfast."
Well one big point of not having free will is that we are constantly affected by our outside environment in ways completely out of our control. What he means by that sentence in particular is that watching this video will lead to behavioral outcomes and thinking patterns (again out of your control) that will make you more mindful about the things you do. It doesnt deny the concept of not having free will at all.
@@quantumfrost9467 im not sure what you mean by that comment. every way you imagine you can influence your own reactions or influences to things are controlled by things you have no control over. thats why different people react different to different things.
Or you weren't given the choice, only an illusion based on the finite nature of your experience, the argument is you are a mechanistic element in a sea of other highly dynamic mechanisms.
You didn't choose to BELIEVE in free-will but that doesn't mean that you actually have it just because you believe in it. Empathy is more important than whether or not free-will exist.
Honestly, this is something I see in my own daily life. I do still believe that we can make our own willful decisions in life, but I can agree that many of these decisions are driven by past data points or current physiological needs. Hats off to you for such a fantastic look into a topic I never really thought much about.
It is not human Will, Drive, Desire and Motivation (WDDM) that is free or unfree; it is the PHYSICAL MOVEMENT caused and compelled by them that is either free or unfree (!!!)... Will, Drive, Desire and Motivation are nouns sharing the same meaning. 'Choosing' and 'deciding' are solely dependent upon and determined by the strength and intensity of your WDDM to experience the greatest degree of PLEASURE. Therefore, 'making a choice' and 'making a decision' are not 'free': they are solely determined by, dependent upon and constrained by - and not free of, or free from (!!!) - your WDDM to experience the greatest degree of PLEASURE. As puppets are compelled (or 'driven') to MOVE by strings attached to their limbs; human beings (and all Living Things) are INSTINCTUALLY compelled to MOVE by or via WDDM
I like your conclusions and agree: rather than just blame yourself for failing at something, it would be more advantageous to look at the conditions that affected you and to change them, for example. But I disagree on your statement that we don't really have free will. And trying to blame things like emotions and desires and thoughts for your actions sounds like a cop-out. Emotions, desires, thoughts etc. are not decisions! Yes, for sure they have a strong influence on us, but we still have free will to choose how we act.
@@terbbert I really like that! (how you put it :) An example I just thought of is: imagine a soldier in a war zone, with bullets flying all over, and him behind cover. He feels scared, terrified even. Yet he chooses to get up and attack the enemy (despite his fear). This is called "courage". I think it was C.S. Lewis who wrote: a soldier who is under fire and feels no fear and therefore attacks is not brave, he is crazy. Thus "courage" is not the absence of a feeling of fear, but rather the decision to still do your duty despite the fear.
In the greater skim of things there is no free will. Maybe you'll confusing willpower with free will, you are presented with options and based on your past knowledge from personal experiences or not you will act accordingly.
This is mind blowing. Its actually messing with my head. So we can't control our natural drives, feelings, desires or inclinations. When we make choices.. they are based on a combination of random thought, past experience, knowledge, desire and emotion. Not free will. This is fascinating.
Paul ClipMaster I know, and the thing is, it doesn’t change the fact that we can still love the people we love. In fact, it establishes that we cannot blame people for who they are, or what they’ve done. A psychopath never asked to have that brain. He never intended to grow up and kill people. He had no say in the matter. I tell people all the time, what if someone killed my wife? I could go on a psychotic break and kill him. Maybe I’d do nothing. I have no idea what would happen, but if I did kill him, it really would go against everything I believe in, so to speak. But would it? The manner in which I act, the way I respond to that tragedy... I wouldn’t have any control over it, just as he didn’t. If I had his brain, if I had lived his life, I would in fact be a psychopath, and it would be me killing innocent people. Surely we have to lock some people up to ensure public safety until we can cure psychopathy. However, we truly can’t hate them for what they’ve done, or who they are. Nobody chooses to kill multiple people, only to spend 50 years in jail, or face the death penalty. If we actually had free will, we would surely choose to be happy. Nobody would choose to grow into an adult and bring misery to complete strangers.
you're implying it's the people that dislike so early that are at fault. Why not the people that just willfully (and blindly) accept what the simple title of the video suggests?
I very rarely use the like button, it's usually after I've watched a significant portion of the video or completely so and I REALLY enjoy the content or find it that helpful. Dislike button, I don't think I have ever used .-.
I'm actually really glad i saw this video. I've felt really alone in these thoughts because i spend most of the week inside my room and i have a lot of time to think, and after seeing patterns in trains of thoughts for so long made me realize that I am predicted by my biological processes. Most people think its a bummer but I'm never asking for someone else to tell me how to help myself, only for the company.
What I got out of this is that we have no immediate free will in the short term, but we can take actions that will alter our long-term thinking patterns, thus leading to desired responses. So in a way, we do have free will in the long term.
Your not dumb. It’s just the experiences of your life and your own biology that have made you a person who would read it and think it says “Free Wi Fi”.
He starts by asking if we could rewind the tape of Truman’s life could he have chosen differently. This is an interesting way to frame the issue and highlights two weakness of his presentation. 1. That experiment has never been tried and in a sense likely never will be tried so no one knows the answer. What would it mean if he could? What would it mean if he couldn’t? And why would that be and why would that be significant? But 2, why would a single person making a different choice in the exact same situation if they were the same person they were when the made the choice the first time be the sine qua non of “free will”? He never defines “free will” or defends why we should accept his definition. His argument is that each human mind is a coherent process of neurology, biology, cognitive processes, etc. What we ask of free will generally is that we are free to authentically be ourselves. That’s what we have. If you injected chaos into the coherent process in the name of Free Will because you don’t like the causality would that make us “free”? No. It would make us arbitrary. If we could, for argument’s sake, establish that our decisions were dictated by a soul and imposed on the brain it would not greatly change the analysis of the freeness of the will. Either the soul would be a coherent process whose next step was caused by the current state or it would not and would be arbitrary. Which would be “free”? But beyond that there are still other weaknesses but I’m sure this is too long to read already, so I’ll confine my comments to those for now.
For the purposes of my hypothetical statement, I tentatively stipulate that a “soul” is a thing that inputs information to the brain and exists outside our current capacity to detect (IE, being extra-dimensional or incorporeal, etc) but for the purposes of the hypothetical statement had been detected and determined to be the actual origin of personality and thought.
@@tidmartin4794 Trying to make a serious argument, while mentioning "the soul", which there is zero scientific evidence for. Also, you never define "the soul". Your argument eats itself.
Erik MS I defined “soul” in my last comment that I posted about a week ago in this thread. My comment that involved a “soul” is not scientific in nature but is relevant only to the form of his argument.
@Bush 911 - You are just addict to entertainment, you want things to be as "loud" as possible. Meditations is all about silencing stimulation to be able to hear more. You cannot hear the wind if you are constantly screaming. Meditation stimulate your brain alot ! It takes a lot to pay attention at will
@@Hgulix62 you also don't control your meditation lol, you're surroundings, personality, bodily needs, and belief will affect whether the meditation is effective or not, some people, like me don't find meditation a effective silencers lol
@@aeircrown7994 - I said meditation silence the mind et enhance focus and tranquility thus limiting intrusive thoughts; i never said you are in control of it.
This video isn't so much about how we don't have free will, but about how decisions are made from a wide variety of inputs, many of which we don't have control over and may not even be aware of. But we do have control over some of the inputs.
@Celtic Revival / Adfywiad CeltaiddYou control the reasoning you put behind your emotions and experiences; you create some of the inputs (perceived as "random" thoughts).
The Big Bang is the reason you wrote this comment. It's also the reason I answered you. The Big Bang constantly influences everything in the Universe. And you don't know it yet but you influence the futur ALL THE TIME.
Imagine how much advertisements take advantage of this. You see something and think "wow that's so cool" and click the buy button. How much of that was free will?
A very simplistic analysis that denies responsibility for our actions. A very dangerous proposition. Thoughts and impulses don't necessitate actions or reactions. Much can be overcome and often is with much haste and waste. Just the same. Free will doesn’t mean that the world is absolute chaos either. Life is balance, yet infinite. What's your tendancy? Are you on my frequency?
I think that some people confuses free will with counsciousness. You ARE counscious of yourself, but you CANNOT decide what you will decide in the next seconds you think. You can try to force yourself to think something, like for example repeating baboon in your head. But the moment you get tired of it your mind starts roaming freely again.
Free will in and of itself doesn't make sense. But I believe religious people in the past used the term of free-will as a way to interpret what they were attempting to describe as consciousness.
Your pre-wired brain acknowledges that you can make modifications to change your future behavior for the better and as a result you tend to engage in those sort of activities which improve your personality. No you cannot choose through free will to make modifications but the realization of not having free will can impact your decisions, the same way all other insights you've had in your life impact your decision-making.
"You can't decide what you will think of next. You can't think your thoughts before you think them. That would require you to think them, before you think them." - Sam Harris
I think the ability to ask yourself what you want and to always receive the ultimate answer your could give to yourself is empowering. Everything was determined. And yet - maybe, knowing this - is what makes us into better humans. Into _who_ we were meant to be. The "issue" is that it changes our interactions with others. I can just not be mad at someone who makes a mistake if their mistake was determined before they ever made it.
One of your most impactful videos so far (at least for me). Thanks for getting your arse off the couch unlike most of us to share what you have learnt. Respect xxx
It tooks me few hours to think about the subject.. I was thinking about all our decisions based on something else, but not us. That made me kind of sad... So i kept thinking.. How our world is formed with atoms and molecules.. How they counteract with each other and compose into complex structures.. such as living beings with brain.. humans with consciousness.. Then i started to compare it to computers, programs, neural networks.. In the end, i've understood that our brain is a real deal. We don't just use the data we receive from external sources, we can generate a new one using our thinking mechanism. We make our decisions based not only on external knowledge but also on our own knowledge, which is a free will if you will =)
And, our own knowledge is the result of our own interpretation of external knowledge, that we built and changed over time. And it was entirely your choice to be skeptical about the initial conclusion, rather than just be sad and accept it.
Emergence is the refutation of reductionist thinking and the lack of free will. We don't really understand how systems work, and we would like it to be a chain of cause and effect, but the more we look at it the less that proposition makes sense. I'm not saying we do or don't have free will but it surely is something curious. And I always think about "yeh, I probably don't have free will, or consciousness, but it'd be very funny if I did and thought otherwise"
Whether we control anything at all, I have no clue... however I love your conscious choice to put Ed Shearmur's Grand Central track from K-Pax in the video - keep doing great work, mate! :)
I did watch your entire video to understand your point of view. Free Will Does Exist. If we separate de influences coming from the subconscious mind (programmed mind) and the conscious mind (temporary and present thinking) then we realize that Free Will operates in the Conscious Mind which in turn can have a changing effect on the subconscious mind if we choose to. Otherwise, we would be acting out on every thought that comes to our Conscious Mind, from the Subconscious realm, without any personal control or personal responsibility over our actions. I totally agree with you that our Programmed Subconscious Mind sends thoughts and ideas to our Conscious Mind but the Free Will that resides in our Conscious Mind is the one that "helps" us decide whether we should make a move or not on the thoughts or ideas that are now in our "Consciousness." Otherwise, we would never be responsible for our actions and personal decisions. Thank you for your video. It sure made me think deeply on this important issue.
First of all let me say I really enjoy your videos, not only as informative entertainment, but also on a practical level (I’ve been enjoying a near-zero-sugar diet for over a year now - Your earlier videos played a large part in that decision). Thank you. That said, this is the first one I have some issues with. It may be semantics, but I find the title misleading. Firstly, when you speak of free-will (or, specifically, the lack thereof), it can be upsetting in two different ways - The first is “predeterminism”, the problems of which should be self-explanatory. The second is that it takes away something which, for want of a better word, is divine. If we have no free will, then we’re simply automatons. A third point, which I found whilst researching this very argument, is in regards to several studies that showed when people are convinced that they “don’t have free will”, the subjects’ moral decisions became noticeably decrepit. I think the title is misleading in that it’s not so much, “Why we don’t have free will”, as it is “Why we lack self control”. I don’t believe self control and free will are comparable in this instance. And one final (subjective) little niggle I have with the video is… Sam Harris. I simply find his black & white explanation that “It’s (literally) all in your head” approach overly simplistic. It’s a tangle in logic which, although can’t be disproved, allows no room for ANY experience outside of, “It’s all just neurons firing… nothing else!” Sorry, but I want my universe to have a little bit more color than that.
Travis, regarding causal determinism, "predeterminism" would be a logical impossibility. If the future has already been caused then it would already be here. No event is caused until the last prior cause of the event has played itself out. And the last prior cause of a deliberate action would be the act of deliberation that directly preceded it.
Marvin, please read my statement again. You seem to think I am in agreement with "predeterminism", which I 100% AM NOT. I was simply stating that saying "One has no free will" is like saying "Everything has already been decided". I do not agree with the second statement, and therefore I have trouble agreeing with the first. My argument is one of semantics between "free will" and "self control". I propose that every time the phrase "free will" is used, you substitute it for "self control". eg. "Free will inhibition level 5", would now become "Self control inhibition level 5". If that were the case, I would pretty much agree with everything in this video.
Travis, the phrase "free will" refers to the empirical event where a person chooses for themselves what they "will" do, when "free" of coercion or other undue influence. It is literally a freely chosen "will". And it is an empirical fact that we are "that which is doing the choosing". The fact that our decision-making process is deterministic (given the same person, the same issues, and the same circumstances we will make the same decision) does not change the fact that it is still us doing the deciding. The fact that some of the calculations in making the decision are conscious and others are performed below conscious awareness also does not change the fact that it is still us doing the deciding. And it is only when the mental illness or injury impairs normal judgment that we lack free will.
Marvin, it sounds very much like we are in agreement! My entire point is that we DO have free will. I am also very aware that there are times when our subconscious can override our "willpower", but is that the same as not having free will? I don't think so. As you said, "it is we who are doing the choosing". Even in situations when "mental illness or injury impairs normal judgment", is the person lacking free will, or lacking self control? The person will simply "choose" to one thing or another, even if that thing is not socially acceptable. A person's free will to choose has not been lost, even if that person's ability to control his/her impulses has been diminished. We DO have free will! We DO have free will! That's why I was opposed to the title, being "Why we don't have free will" - As I have already said, it's a semantic argument. I happen to agree with most of the video's content, it's just that one issue with the title that bugs me.
I believe there is a fundamental difference between what we consciously choose to do and what we do as a force of biology, habit, subconscious, or similar "automatic" impulse. Even if what what we "will to agree with" is just a choice to agree with one of the myriad semi-random thoughts that appeared in our brain (which is another point I would argue against) it is the will that is important: our experiences, genetics, environment, and much more may greatly limit our possible choices but it is that which we specifically choose to act on, or agree with, that represents our free will. I don't think it is so much that we need to accept that we have no free will, I think it is that we have to accept that what we can control with our will is relatively small.
accept what influence you have at scale toward your free will. environment, diet, exercise, and media consumption. these are factored into influence to create scalable free will.
Great video, enjoyed it. I would argue with your phrasing on beliefs. Beliefs are just ideas (e.g. ketogenic diet is the best for losing weight; intermittent fasting is the best to lose weight - both are beliefs) but it is the attitude we have that matters (e.g. one will have an attitude which prefers ketogenic diet over anything else, another which prefers intermittent fasting, other one will have an attitude which does not like any of those - but all of those people would have considered all of the beliefs). Therefore, the preference for beliefs (which you call in the video as beliefs) is actually attitude. If you want to understand more about it read some Solomon's work about attitude.
Philosophers think of beliefs as propositional attitudes, where a proposition is (roughly) the meaning of a declarative statement (i.e., a statement that can be true or false). If I believe that today is Monday that means that I think that the statement "Today is Monday" is true.
I've always thought as belief as something that is true to the brain because it wants it to be. Something as a fact with out proof. In other words, either of those diet being the best is a quantifiable provable matter if one considers all factors pertaining to the individual and the diets construction. There is in fact a best answer, but one has to consider all factors of an equation. A scientist could make a blanket statement and say "Keto is the best diet for 60% of people, as intermittent is more difficult in comparison and the benefits of keto slightly overtake that of intermittent fasting, however 40% can't do keto for health reasons, so intermittent would be best for them" for a hypothetical example. Most things are actually quantifiable, but unknown factors are always present. This is why we work with information we have. Our brains already do this in every decision we make anyway. This is why I encourage hope, not belief. People who believe in things that can't be proven or disproven or have actively been disproven are terrifying to me. Going with something that doesn't have any proof or so little or even more likely to not be worth believing because the possibility is so low. But I like hope. I hope there is an afterlife, I hope that I have a soul or some special portion of energy that retains consciousness after I die and I get to be with loved ones again, maybe explore the universe with out fear of death. I don't believe in it at all, but I hope that it's true.
To decide HOW MUCH free will, IF ANY, we must FIRST EXACTLY solve the differential equations that govern all atoms in our bodies (from quantum mechanics, such as Schrodinger), and THEN see HOW FAR from the exact solutions the motions of those atoms deviate.
@Celtic Revival / Adfywiad Celtaidd Some possible evidence: If two people commit to never use addictive drugs, the one who has used those drugs recently is less able to keep that commitment than the person who has never used drugs, when those drugs are made accessible.
Yeah, those are the ones that don't believe in free will. They show the most signs of actually having it. It pushes them to consider possibilities and to be creative, knowing nothing really matters.
... And those of us that did read more, did so as a result of our respective sets of dispositions, just like he talks about in the video. Just because we call something a 'decision' it's still just as conditioned as the rest of our behavior.
sometimes when i forgot what i planned to do or to say, i simply try to remember what i was thinking or doing before that idea arrived in my head. Somehow the chain of thoughts rebuilds itself again
We don't live in a classical Newtonian world. Every particle in the universe is existing in a probabilistic state, and this is observable on the macro scale. In fact, modern technology only works because of quantum mechanics. In a nutshell, nothing can be known with 100% certainty. Everything just has a waveform denoting statistical distribution. Massive simple interactions can be predictable to high (yet still imperfect) precision. However, in the case of the incredibly complex network of billions/trillions of tiny electrical signals in your brain, emergent thoughts aren't even remotely predictable. If something isn't predictable, it's inherently not deterministic. Literally nothing in the universe is deterministic.
It follows that if it is theoretically possible to predict a system of complexity X, then it is theoretically possible to predict a system of complexity x+1. And you're not using the philosophical notion of determinism here, which is nonsensical.
It's not theoretically possible to predict a system of any complexity to 100% certainty. And if there's an uncertainty about something, it's not predetermined.
GlacialTempestX I did not claim that it was possible to predict something 100%. And uncertainty exists because of lack of information. I can be certain that a coin has a 50% chance to land face up. Even if complete information results in probabilities, that’s just a different external factor to replace causation, which still gets in the way of the idea that we our choices are unbound from this world.
The point of this video is not to prove that the entire world is deterministic, but rather that we have no free will. In a non deterministic world, we could still very much have no free will.
Every time you fall asleep, you die Someone else wakes up in your body thinking they are you You are alone, trapped in your own mind The world around you is your lie Soon you will be nothing Never again hear sounds Never again see colors Never again be anyone Search for Marshmallow People 1-3, this poem is from the third one
My religious views have always instructed this to a degree. That while we don't necessarily have control over what thoughts play across the stage of our mind, we do have control over whether or not those thoughts are entertained. We may not control our habits, but we do control which habits we practice. We may not control our physiology, but can support it in a way to produce the most closely results we want. Being aware of these bodily algorithms and how they tap into our behavior at the very least gives us an opportunity to have a better understanding of our day to day behavior
Thanks, great video, I loved it! Just two corrections: 1. The results in the Israeli judge study were likely due to the order in which the judges organized their court cases over the course of the day, placing easy cases with very unlikely parole closer to lunch. 2. The James-Lange Theory of Emotion was posed by two guys (not one): William James and Carl Lange.
When did "no free will" become "less free will?" To me these arguments reveal that your desire is the most central part of who you are. And of course your desires fluctuate depending on physiological conditions. We seem more present than deterministic arguments make us out to be. The examples where you try to force your future self to feel a certain way fail because you are not your future self. You are present with desires. Those desires change. You don't always control that. Consciousness doesn't have to mean control. If you leave any room for a sliver of will, then you have will. Yes your buttons can be pushed. But are you only pushed buttons? I'm yet to be convinced by the Sam Harris argument
I think the best example is the test that showed unconscious decision 7 whole seconds before the area of the brain that we understand deals with consciousness even knew of the decision. And this was simplistic "right or left" decisions. Things that don't matter much. I think of us like a computer and a monitor (granted a bit more complex, but it works for an analogy) Our consciousness is a monitor, all our unconscious processes and everything else is all the parts of the computer, even down to eating being a power supply of like a battery. Watch the video "You is two" by CGP grey in studies on split brain patients, it explains how the left speaking brain hemisphere confabulates reasons for action even though it doesn't actually know. It stands to reason that this might even be the crux for the self-perpetuating feeling of free will, explaining past actions to current self even if there isn't an exact one. Another example is think of the first color that comes to mind, and keep asking the subsequent answers why you thought of that explanation to that. Eventually you come up empty and don't know why. Last but not least, lack of free-will explains one key thing that seems to baffle every person to hell and back. Why can't we change behavior? Or rather, why does it take so freaking long to do so? Because patterns are reinforced and forming a new one is like making a new path in the wild. It has to be treaded on over and over and over again to start to make it a viable path. I think if we had any semblance of free-will, we could change behavior quite quickly. Free-will is also a paradox term. Free means uncontained, directionless, with out constraint, will is exertion of direction and purpose. The very term defeats itself in a way.
The interesting thing about the topic of Free Will is culture. Cultures are human operating systems. It is the cultures that form a great deal of our identity, perception and social understanding of society. Despite variation with individuals in the same culture, each person has a foundation built up by their culture despite their respectively different experiences with the said culture.
This is an Interesting Video and it did give me food for thought. And coincidentally I have been thinking on and of about this particular topic for some time now. But I differ in the conclusion I have arrived at, which is free will does does exist from the action or perspective. Let me explain and start by acknowledging that some of what you said is accurate. 1. One does not choose there like and dislikes 2. Human do have a propensity for instinct and involuntary action. 3. If left unchecked these factor can drive a majority of a person actions. Now the Explanation, my perspective revolves around one major aspect... The determination or quantification of free will. How do you determine free will. The simple answer would be from an action taken or withheld. From this basis it is easy to assert and extrapolate instances of free will from those that are driven by environmental or biological factor. And my proof can be drawn from assessing this questions... 1. Have you ever performed a task you dislike? 2. Have you ever refrained from a liked activity? 3. Have you ever undertaken a great endeavour, which is a complex mix of choices both desirable and undesirable? 3. Why did you make those choices? 4. What is your responsibility in those choices? 5. Is discipline an internal or external factor? 6. Is discipline an implicit expression of free will? I find that when you observe conflicted scenario such as the first two queries you will find that there is an added agent that does not fall in either biological or environmental. This agent is the ego expressing itself. Free will is the expression of the ego through choice to do or not to do, whether consciously or passively. That said I believe the perceived decline in free will is just a symptom of persons choosing to go on autopilot, in which the individual still made the choice consciously at some point in there life to flip that switch. On the other hand consider someone considering to undertake strength training for the first time. The experience being quite unpleasant and yielding no results for a couple of months, even to the point testing the belief that they would get stronger if they did it. But this individual will push thought the ordeal through sheer force of will and 6 to 8 months later gain the first fleeting glimpses of results. This individual has a choice stop or continue. All I can say is the number of weight lifter with rippling pectorals or number of pro athletes or number of musical prodigies is not zero. Do you follow where I am going with this. Free will is linked to all if not most great achievement humans undertake. Also due to the illusive nature of some of this achievements, meaning they are not guaranteed, the drives for this can not be a purely social pressure. They require the individual to enforce there free will to keep training, keep trying, keep moving toward until the goal is achieved, days, months, years or decades later and someone can receive the endorphin rush and euphoria of have done something great.
This is not free will you are talking about. It’s called delayed gratification. Self control in order to achieve more. People actually learn it, more often in their childhood. So again your experience defines whether you will perform task you don’t want to or not.
free choice does not equal free will. You can choose to ask a girl out on a date or not, but you cannot choose what has led you up to that point. Your birth. What happened before your birth. The big bang...etc.
On the subject of "Do we control our thoughts?" I would argue that there are [at least] two "levels" of thought: 1. The thoughts that "simply appear" into consciousness 2. The thoughts we think when we're actively contemplating something, which we use to make big decisions. (i.e. free will) I argue that being self-aware means we examine and curate our "random" thoughts from a higher level.
@@romanianhustler3309 "You can't decide what you will think of next. You can't think your thoughts before you think them. That would require you to think them, before you think them." - Sam Harris
It's funny that you include that quote from Daniel Dennet our of context, considering how he is very much publicly against saying that free will doesn't exist
Before you can answer the question of "Do we have free will", I think you first have do define what is meant by "we or I". Is the idea that we have free will an illusion, or is the idea that you are your body the real illusion? If you agree with the premise that everything you are is the result of causal interaction, and as such is predetermined, and that all of those interactions could (theoretically) be traced back to the moment of creation, then what you really are is what the entire universe is doing at the point we call here and now. So what you see as your body and mind is really just the tip of the iceberg so to speak. I think when you look at it from that perspective the question of free will does not make sense, because even though it feels like you are a stranger in the world being pushed and pulled by forces beyond your control, the real you, the deep down whatever there is, is what you are, only you have this illusion that is not true. So unless you subscribe to some supernatural force that operates outside of nature, how do you separate yourself from the entire universe? Other than through the illusion of perception, but the reality is, Your It. read Alan Watts, he explains it far better than I.
Surely the only thing we know is real is what we perceive. What "I" perceive is what is "real" to me. What I choose to eat is perceived as my decision and therefore I have a free will.
Your life is a concatenation of moments (flavors). All is given. Even this realisation and the feeling of fear or liberation this realisation can bring. Sometimes when life gets intense i totally forget this fact and i get dragged down by the river of life. Then when things settle down i wake up and i feel free once again. I can't help it. I'm just the watcher!
i would have approached the entire topic from a different angle. what is free will? so far, nobody could define that. what is a "free choice" and what is a "non free choice"? if you claim free will is possible, can you explain how it works? what would you have to do to build a machine that can make free decisions? what is the underlying principle? what are the materials used? currently, we know about what we call elementary particles. those are either predictable or random. how can you build something "free" out of these elements? so far, nobody could answer any of these questions.
Depends on what you define as "free". If you define it as something that is not determined by cause and effect like this video then there is nothing that is free. If you define it as something that has many possibilities then everything is free to a certain degree. If the definition collapses then it is a false definition so the latter is the true definition of free. Due to quantum indeterminacy and the butterfly effect everything is defined as free because we are not able to know the exact cause and effect of any system at an elementary and large scale. This means if you were to build an AI that is capable of doing everything humans can then it can be considered to have free will once integrated into society. Also machines can be considered free but do not have a will. A will or consciousness is created at the cultural level. You cannot describe consciousness as materials but it can created in a vessel of materials.
I'm not surprised you didn't find answers. Skimming comments for the answers to life itself is like trying to skim a physics book to learn rocket science
@Connor Todd yes but it's not some mystical thing, it's simply a neural network that has been created by on natural processes. When you "decide" to do something, it's because your brain was wired (or taught) to make that decision. Thoughts are not just mysteriously injected into neurons. The closest thing to a soul would maybe be a pattern of errors, or tendencies, genetic differences, etc. But that's physical abnormalities, not a soul.
I highly recommend reading Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow. We read it as course material for my freshman philosophy class and it was a pleasurable experience.
Charles, why do you recommend it? I'm thinking of purchasing it but Im not sure if it's worth while. Can you tell me more about what you like about it? Thanks
E H One thing going for it is how easy it is to read through. Kahneman is a very efficient and concise writer so you’ll rarely if ever get lost. At the end of every chapter he has a couple sentences that evoke whatever lesson the chapter was about to test your comprehension. As far as the content, Kahneman’s analysis of the logical fallacies derived from the interactions of the conscious brain (system 2) and the unconscious brain (system 1) are really eye-opening. You’ll start to recognize you and others falling for the same fallacies daily. It honestly helps you become a more logical person to recognize the limitations of the mind and how it can go astray.
Oh for fucks sake, I just looked up books to help studying 2 minutes ago, one of the books recomended was exactly that one, now I scroll down and see it again
The biggest factor in arriving at my beliefs has been my interactions with other people. I can’t say that other people’s ideologies and theories have influenced me much at all. I look at people’s behavior, and most of what I’ve seen has not had a positive impact.
Jim Carrey: I pick up the tea because I’m thirsty, is that free will ? No, it’s not, that’s your body asking for something to drink, your job is to provide it, you can however choose not to drink even when you are thirsty. That is free will, the ability to decide. When you’re tired during a workout, your body may show signs of being exhausted, you can choose to keep going, or you can choose to take a break. I’ve always disagreed with the idea that we don’t have free will. Most of the assumptions made, like thinking “soap” or “soup”, I honestly wasn’t affected by. You could actually change your desires if you wanted to, probably only certain desires. I’m sorry but I completely disagree. Choosing to eat meat or not, that’s a perfect example of free will. Denial is an example of free will, a person can know the facts, but decide not to acknowledge it, wether that’s a subconscious decision or a conscious one. It’s still a decision. These assumptions oversimplify the human experience. I find that this entices victim mentality. Do we control our thoughts ? Yes and no. Realizing that money isn’t real isn’t going to get people to delete all their money, because they will likely be aware of the fact that society has a certain functioning. To function in a modern society, it’s best to have some form of money, even if it’s fake. “The repercussions of committing a crime will still prevent people from being criminals” so, if there weren’t any laws, everyone would start murdering and thieving? For certain personality types this may be true, but I’m assuming that most people have a moral compass even without laws. Maybe some of us do need laws, since people were barbaric according to history. I guess the question is: Who would we be if laws didn’t exist?
"you can however choose not to drink even when you are thirsty" But why would you? "You could actually change your desires if you wanted to, probably only certain desires." How? "Choosing to eat meat or not, that’s a perfect example of free will. Denial is an example of free will, a person can know the facts, but decide not to acknowledge it, wether that’s a subconscious decision or a conscious one. It’s still a decision." But something made them take that decision, didn't it? "These assumptions oversimplify the human experience. I find that this entices victim mentality." Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man. "Realizing that money isn’t real isn’t going to get people to delete all their money, because they will likely be aware of the fact that society has a certain functioning." And because it has a certain functioning, you decide to not delete your money. Tell me, where is free will here? The end has little to do with this discussion.
When I am pregnant my hormone made me vomit when I ate beef. You could argue that I have the free will to swallow the stuff and not puke it out, but I REALLY really don't want to exercise free will in this case.
Mercure250 damn dude this is the 5th comment I’ve read and you’ve been on every single one. I know you had no choice but to comment on all of them but I hope the universe has enabled you to get a life since then.
Now : *Existential crisis and depression A week from now: Didn't he in that one video say we don't have free will, we'll I don't remember what his points were so I'll just think of it as "just his opinion"
How do people have this kind of crisis, your past experiences are you, and what you want is your will, and these decisions happen in our minds, so basically... It's still free will, seriously I started listening to this interested but by the end I was like,"you're just describing fee will but complicating it"
@@opal9450 He was saying that our wants are dictated by our personalities and we can't change our personalities, our personalities change because of other things so therefore we don't have freewill. I didn't actually have a crisis but I agree with his points, if someone else knew everything about me he would be able to predict what I would do in the future.
@@maxhonig283 Not really, the human brain is very powerful and complex thing... most of the time. It really is random and doesn't have consistent thought, I dunno, maybe that's just my ADHD though.
Free will is an extension of will. It's a skill learned. It's discipline. It's being able to do what you need to do despite how you feel. People with true free will accomplish great things, people who "choose" to believe we have no free will absolves themselves from responsibilities. It's a toxic way of thinking. Are there people that have it harder to impose free will? Of course! We are genetic lotterys after all, but just like 300 pound man with a thyroid condition that refuses to exercise because of his condition , you cheat yourself out of a great deal of what you can accomplish.
You missed the point entirely. The universe is material and deterministic. Our bodies are material and are thus completely subject to the deterministic, cause and effect nature of reality. There is no logical room for free will in the picture. You are focusing "free will" with "self control".
@@logansmith7651 I didn't miss the point. I just refused to acknowledge its validity. I will gladly elaborate why. When we were merely cells, then your view of material and determinism was valid, but we arent merely cells anymore. We are entire universes of cells with both the same and differentiating processes that make up the individual. Since then we have opened up the knowledge of our own biochemistry. Its not perfect but we can now isolate certain chemical compounds that make us act a certain way. We can experiment with ourselves. We can create music that speaks to our very cells and causes them to feel joy. We can quell our own demons, build ourselves up, and develop ourselves as we see fit, not as the world chose to make us. So you see, we have gone up a entire dimension of conciousness while people cling onto determinism. We left that ages ago when we created art and learned how to dream. we have exposed ourselves and continue to expose ourselves to stimuli that wouldn't have ever existed when we were evolving. If anything, for the first time in history, humans have free will. what are you gonna do with yours?
@@mucura1 > _We can experiment with ourselves. We can create music that speaks to our very cells and causes them to feel joy. We can quell our own demons, build ourselves up, and develop ourselves as we see fit, not as the world chose to make us._ I'm not sure I understand. How does this exactly diminish the validity of determinism? Of course we choose to develop things that are conducive to our well-being, because we're social animals that want to survive. It's in our instinct. I'm using the word "choose" very loosely. It's not that we _don't_ make choices but those choices are confined within certain parameters swayed by a huge multitude of factors. Every decision we make is from complex processes in our brain. From the synapses sending signals to our nervous system allowing us to execute movement, to where thought is produced, to our general psychological makeup. The brain being a physical thing is bound by the laws of physics in this way, by several upon several antecedent causes. So what even is free will given this?
Guys, I want to ask you about free will and decisions... What are your thoughts on my question- So lets say that a person wants to change. How and why does he do that? (Not talking about the results but what's happening within him) Because look... Why am I on the path to change while my other friends are not? I'm not saying that because that's what I think about myself- it's what I witness lately from my behaviours and experiences. They are the proof that I really do things to change, however small they might be. I just can't wrap my head around this thought of no free will. Theoretically it makes sense but at the same time- so how do we choose the best path to change, how do we make choices and how can we alter our future? For example- I have this kind of system built within me and developed throughout my life over the course of different experiences that I went through. I'm here, I am who I am (And I' not talking immaterial, ether, spiritual self or something... I'm just simply refering to my brain). WHY and HOW do I make choices that will do better for my future? Is that, in a sense, part of luck (What information I was exposed to in the beginning of my life, what experiences i've had, what my parents taught me)? My goal is this- build these kinds of beliefs and physiology that would make me be unstoppable. Right now I'm somewhat of a procrastinator, I have to force myself to do things, i've lost my passion for what I used to have it. Yet these were my only goals (those passions, to be exact- singing, rapping, public speaking, acting, basically using my voice for the better). Now I want to come back to that same path of the passion for those same things (Since I know that I really enjoyed them or even still do enjoy them but it's just very hard for me to force myself to do them since there's lack of drive and motivation, which used to be there). So I want to develop that passion once again. I want to create a belief system that I'm unstoppable, that I do whatever it takes to achieve my goals (similair to David Goggins). How do I go about this change? What do I need to do? Experience certain things? Find new information and knowledge that would prove me otherway? Or what else? And at the same time- is it all luck that I'm thinking about this or do I have some sort of ability to make choices between alternatives?
Gedas The idea of free will is hard to let go of because we have such a visceral feeling that we all have the ability to make choices. On a superficial level, I'd argue that we do have free will. But when you dig deep enough and look at the evidence, you realize that fundamentally everything is determined. Every single choice you think you make is a result of countless events over which you have no authority. To believe in free will is to deny cause and effect. Every thought you have emerges from a subsequent one. In order to truly control our thoughts we would have to be separate from our brains. There would have to be a self, a true "I." And even if there is something mysterious we've yet to discover, like a soul which controls the brain, who controls the soul? And who chose the soul? Where is the free will in this? This knowledge does not mean you can't better yourself and exercise discipline. You may realize free will doesn't exist, but that doesn't change our deep-seated feeling that it in fact does. It doesn't change the fact that you still have no idea what will happen in each succeeding moment of your experience. In other words, everything may be predetermined, but we still can't see into the future. And so that's where the wonder is. That is why you should still set goals and do whatever it is you want to do, so long as you have the will ;)
look into meditation, it will completely change your paradigm. Also examine why you desire to "be unstoppable" ? Is this desire leading to suffering and ultimately preventing you from reaching your goals? Im gonna go out on a limb and say yes it is. Stop worrying about your past procrastination and your future goals, the only thing that matters is the present moment. A daily meditation practice will help you cultivate mindfulness and lead you down a path towards the cessation of suffering. Hit me up if you want me to point you towards some resources
I saw soap because of the way the camera was displaying her neck and the side of her face so beautifully. Her skin looked amazing. Something about her posture also reminded me of a soap commercial.
Truman did not have free will. He was completely controlled by Jim Carey
And Jim Carey was completely controlled by Hollywood
Jimmy Arthur And Hollywood is completely controller by corporate minds
@@vryday and corporate minds are completely controlled by .... wait a minute
@@Gunth0r and wait a minute is completely controlled by... WTF?
@@luca_sbll and ...WTF? is completely controlled by 1's and 0's
"Whoops teehe I committed pre-meditated mass murder im such an Aquarius"
LOL
Heehoo I found out so many people have balloon kinks on the internet I’m such a Scorpio
Not your mistake
No that’s Scorpio
A plague, huh?
I've learned one thing buy your judge a feast before going in to court LoL
Helaman Gile that counts as bribery do you still lose
Saosaq Ii not if you bribe the people accusing you of bribery
@@saosaqii5807 id bring in the table of food and tell him hes free to have it
@@Lyle-xc9pg still bribery
@@jocaingles8464 get someone else anonymous to bring it to the judge for you, so the judge doesn’t know who it’s from so that it won’t effect their decision in the case and won’t be seen as bribery by the judge.
Human are such over thinkers that I wonder whether we are not just constantly creating problems for ourselves
yes!
most of the time we worry about things that won’t happen
Life would be so much easier if we weren’t self aware
That's the point of being a human... all though i do agree with the fact that we tend to overthink on stuff that gives us no benefit by overthinking about it (in some cases even harming us by doing so) but if not the constant desire to solve more puzzles, we would've been no different than the apes we were at the beginning.
Yea, but if we didn't think about things a lot then there would be no such thing as internet, or medicine, or indoor plumbing, which solve a lot of problems.
But I saw soap, not soup.
PaJeezy but what caused you to see soap instead of soup, there is a cause and reason as to why you saw soap instead of soup.
I actually wasn't paying attention at that exact moment and saw STOP.
I saw "soap" too, and I"m usually very aware of causation in many of my thoughts (lots of meditating) if I'm not in a stressful environment.
While I can never be absolutely sure this is the proximate cause, I had previously seen an ad depicting a woman in the shower who I found quite attractive, and that memory popped into my consciousness the moment I saw the letters SO_P. So I was primed (very probably) by that commercial in some sense.
I also just ate, and was not hungry.
PaJeezy...I saw soap too and then realized the "a" wasn't there just before he said something about it.
Yep, I saw SOAP also, but I realized that's because my brain just plugged letters into the blank spot alphabetically.
The world is is an illusion, that breaks apart when you think about it too much... and then you get hungry.
Me right now...
This is one of the wisest things I’ve ever read.
Without seeing through the illusion you can't pull back the curtains where the lie is ALWAYS opposite the truth.
Yes the truth is a lie, but a lie isn't necessarily the truth.
Great... now I'm hungry
The matrix trying to throw you off the scent!
@@actresstowardbroadway5733 ur 2 funny !! ! !!!!!
Strangely, may have been my lack of attention to some degree, or difference in processing information, but I saw soap instead of soup.
Same
I was high and the white square looked like my soap on a rope. Hope that helps
Same
Have you been evaluated for ADHD!?
I though of stop before soap, I can't read apparently.
I know my defense the next time I'm in court. " your honor, I had no free will, it was my bioligy"
Next?
Legit defense.
And that would be a correct defence against moral responsibility. Still we have a need for rules with penalties.
Society has an "immune system" which removes members that are not beneficial. So your best bet would be to offer something useful. Example, if you are a thief, teach people how to protect against other thieves.
youd need to be locked up to prevent your biology from causing anymore crimes and to rehabiliate said biology. it changes nothing
I used to be scared by the thought that we do not have a free will, but the more I thought about it, the more sense the whole concept made. What was really upsetting at first, and I guess it is what most people find scary about it, was the notion that with free will me as a person just faded away. But I realized that my desires, emotions and believes are still what define me and that I have been acting accordingly to them my whole life. So in reality, nothing had changed.
Elijah Bailey If there is no free will, then no one realizes anything.
Reuben Oakley exactly
Paul Panzer It takes a long time to change the inner workings. Do not fall for this simplistic way of thinking about Consciousness. "Free will" is fundamental to change, and Change excists no matter how you put it
Then please enlighten me about how free will is fundamental to change. It seems to me that physical laws like entropy, the laws of thermodynamics and such are much more fundamental to change than any concept of free will can be. The behaviour of any given material in a closed system, the development of the human body, how to effectivly alter areas ot the brain - all of this and much more we can describe using naturalistic explanation. So if we see for example that mediation has an effect on the brain - why bring free will into it? There is just no need for it.
Well, it's not like they chose to be ignorant lol. All we can do is spread the word and teach the science and hope that people come to the right conclusion.
Knowing that we’re not 100% in control allows us to build empathy towards others’ circumstances. The first step towards a society that works together.
If you or they are not in control that results in zero empathy. Seriously read some history. Warfare is rife with examples. Submit to a higher authority, our lack of control, allows us to kill easier and be less empathetic.
Circumstances or not, it's better to empathize with the victims of wrongdoers than the wrongdoers themselves.
Now why would that be? What use does morality have in a determined world?
Not morality, utility. Empathizing with wrongdoers will encourage them.
+Sam Fraser
I was responding to the OP... whatever.
I would actually argue that empathizing with wrongdoers also has utility (and since it is easy to sympathize with victims it actually might be more important) and neither empathizing nor sympathizing equals affirmation or encouragement of the behavior. The utility of empathizing lies primarily in understanding how the same factors could influence oneself (thus maybe avoiding them), sympathizing helps with not going overboard on what we might call "justice" and leaves a return to accepted society open.
Anyway, If you want to argue empathy or anything else for that matter I am up for it, though I may take a day or two to respond right now...
I have rarely seen comments as intelligent and as funny...
I'm in the right place!
"Considering the Tokyo 2020 Olympics are coming up" ha.ha.ha.
They're not coming anytime soon.
I can choose to do what I want, but I can't choose to want what I do.
You can. If I am depressed , and I want to be happy. But my brain chemistry doesn't allow me to be happy now, so I will go to psychiatrist and pop some pills and can feel relaxed but after I am relaxed I can decide to hang out and be happy or go for meditation which will calm me down. All these changed my brain chemistry because I took the action.
I can choose to want what I want.
That is not the essence of free will. That only proves that will is in the order of acting.
@@TarotRider-t2m your mind chose to make you choose what you want. Your past actions and your surroundings too. If you were raised in a household and community, where mental health was a taboo and being depressed was nothing but natural (these factors are amongst innumerable others), you wouldn't have chose to seek mental help
@@TarotRider-t2m
Why do you wanna be happy? Can you choose to want to stay depressed? Why were your suicidal urges not enough to make you want to commit suicide?
@@TarotRider-t2m everything we've ever done was caused by something that came before it, all the way back to the beginning.
This just assumes that “you” aren’t that collection of thoughts and feelings. As if they are acting on something else that is “you”. If the “you” is this collection of experiences then you don’t have free will you ARE free will. “You” are the decision making process not an outside observer of the output. This idea I think puts consciousness more primary and accepting its reality and THEN explaining the world.
That is exactly what I was thinking, if we are the sum of our experiences doesn't that mean we are truly making a decision because those experiences actually make up who we are?
This comment is spot on. This video emphasizes what an absurd emergent property free will would be and acts like it's only "free" if it's independent of external factors while whittling away what could count as internal factors till there's nothing left which is a standard that consciousness and self-awareness could never holdup to ether especially the being unaffected by alcohol part. We have no serious doubts about those things because we experience them. We experience free will too but some folks are in denial about it. I suspect they have made choices they regret and would rather not be responsible for.
@@paulharland7280 but WHY do people make the choices they make? What influences those choices? If those factors are beyond your control then how is your will truly free?
I chose to comment, but why did I choose this post to comment on? I chose this comment because I like it.
Paul Harland The only thing that makes us choose things is our wants, by which I mean the uncontrollable desires from feelings, beliefs and general biological instincts. If you go to the gym even though you think it’s uncomfortable, your wants to be healthy where greater than the wants to relax. If you’re deciding if you are going to buy a muffin or a donut, and you want the muffin and there is nothing to stop you, you’re going to chose the muffin. If you then realize that the muffin contains palm oil (let’s say you care about nature), and you then choose to buy the donut instead (which in this case doesn’t contain palm oil), your wants to help nature were greater than your wants to have the muffin. And none of this is free. We work through cause and effect. If we would have free will, that would mean that we could do things independent of any causal chain, in other words: do things because of no reason, which we can’t.
11:36 ahahahhahahahahahahaaha 2020 Olympics
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
teehe
That heatmap at 15:10 is one of the most beautiful things I've seen in a long time. Love is really in the heart, envy in the head, happiness everywhere, anger in the chest and arms. That's incredible.
And lust is in da kok😢
TH-cam's algorithms are part of my free will
I blame them every time I end up on 'that side' of youtube.
I know I’m not the only one experiencing this, TH-cam and Google has been correctly showing contents that I’ve thought of earlier, that’s way too accurate to be coincidence, and too often
when you think about it, you tube and the internet as a whole are like a brain, with individual computers being the neurons and humans being the physiological element that directs the thoughts of the internet. humans are becoming one large macro-organism
Evil JohnnyBravo One guy pointed out that the internet could very well be a conscious mind, a collective result of all our interactions.
Several people argued that's nonsensical. Each of us is an individual mind, so how can we possibly be part of Internet's consciousness?
One guy replied: imagine two neurons talking in your brain. 'What is this Human you're talking about? Everyone knows Humans don't exist, there's only us neurons communicating to each other!'
BrokenSymetry
I dunno bout you, but my neurons don't speak English, they speak by shooting electricity and chemicals across synapses :P
8:00
I thought of STOP
Man I need some sleep
So theres three of us 😃
Maybe dxylextia
I thought of shop and then soap when I noticed the letters didn't match for shop. I've been needing sleep for years.
Me too, although I think it could be because the missing letter was represented by a square which is the symbol for stop on a control haha
Same
*"I chose not to have free will"*
wait, that illegal
*Hmm*
Stonks
You can't do that. That's like saying I choose for the sky to turn purple.
Free Will is nature. If you deny free will you would then HAVE to deny yourself
The weird thing is, once you realize all this systems that drive your thinking and actions and desires and stuff, you feel like you, the consciousness, exists apart from those systems and stuff. So now you still feel you have free will but just more like in a cage. You feel like you are not responsible for the desires you get, but you feel they are an input to YOU from the brain, but you don't feel like you ARE the brain. I wonder how far we can go like this. What if science breaks down our brain to every atom. and explains every single process that makes it work. Would I still feel like I exist apart from all that, lol?
Exaclty how I feel
Thats exactly the thing that drives me crazy. Especially when I have low dopamin levels due to drugs or masturbation abuse my body is acting like an autopilot and my "consciousness" is like an observer at this time. By time when I abstain from these things an begin to workout/meditate and be more aware of the surrounding I feel more conciouss then.
Plus every decision is made based on past decisions/experiences, even unconscious choices are based on past experiences. Everyone always does what they think is best be it best for the world, best for their family/friends, or best for themselves. There’s never a time when it’s left to “chance”, even flipping a coin the outcome can be determined with a few relatively simple math equations. I’m sure there’s absolutely no free will.
In Eastern Philosophy, the "pure, unconditioned consciousness" you describe is known as the Ātman (आत्मन्). It is sometimes translated as the Self. Different schools of thought interpret the nature and essence of this Self in ways ranging from equating it with the eternal, underlying, all-pervasive reality of the universe (as in Advaita Vedanta) to denying that it ultimately or truly exists and that one is impermanent and devoid of a soul (as in Theravada Buddhism).
@@coachsamir7496 your comment is gold. This is how I improved my life alot
"Receiving an unrequested frontal lobotomy" now I hear doublespeak everywhere :D This one is actually funny.
Very interesting and thought provoking argument. Here is my take:
There isn't really any "true self" to become diverted from, because while we think of the self as an entity it is actually more akin to a continuous process, ever changing with outside input. What you might think of as the "default you" - sober, unstressed - isn't any more valid or true than the you during a high fever, an acid trip, or under the effects of a brain tumour. It is all the same, ever changing self, subjected to different outside stimuli.
When you argue that there is no free will because the self is always influenced by outside stimuli, you accept the notion that there is an underlying "true self" separate from these effects, and that the less influenced you are by them, the more genuinely you you are. This hypothetical "true self", however, could never actually be encountered, because the self disappears at the moment we stop interacting with outside stimuli i.e when we die.
In other words: the self is not separate from how we interact with the world, the self _is_ the process by which we do. What you call inhibitions, are really just modifiers and alterations, but the deductions you make aren't any less valid with or without them in regard to being "your choices". There isn't any way that the self could be any more in control of its choices than it is - our will is exactly as free as it can be.
i was hoping for a more buddhist perspective in the comments, thanks for the idea. The question of "you" having free will doesn't make much sense does it?
My take is that in order to have free will there'd have to be a "free self" transcendent to the material world that can make choices free from material influences. I agree with the fact that the "true self" is your entire body and the effects of the world on it and that every "choice" you make is still yours although it is entirely determined by the physical world
@@superduperfreakyDj there's no true self is the point. because all things are impermanent and therefore void of essence.
I love this thought here, was starting to think along these lines watching the video (I study zen buddhism a little these days) and you articulated it way better than I could have.
Thinking that there is a 'true self' as something other than this whole being you're occupying is a fractured, divorced way of looking at things - it is more true and simply just happier to think of it all as one and the same. You're you.
Something like that. :b
@@roseblack6342 Care to elaborate more on how our impermanence proves we're void of essence?
Joke's on you, I ALWAYS think about food so I was already primed.
vu
It’s bc u program yourself, you keep thinking abt food over and over again. it went to your subconscious mind bc now you dont need to think it anymore bc u programmed it to your subconscious to make that thought be on auto pilot. That’s why manifestation works :) bc we program it by saying/writing whatever goal or desires we want over and over again until it’s stuck to our subconscious. Then our subconscious does the rest of the work. Well and of course us taking the necessary action to get to that goal or desire;)
I actually saw soap first..maybe I shouldn’t be drinking my shower gel 😰
I saw soap because the blocked out letter looked like a square bar of soap.
@@maxis2k I also want to know how this work. I did grocery shopping and the last thing I did before watching this video was putting liquid soap in the bathroom dispenser and this liquid was really thick compared to the one I usually buy, making the process longer.
Is that the reason I said SOAP?
Is it because I was treating the background imagines as non important, and eating soup wasn't something I paid attention to?
Is it because I live in the past and can't be in the present moment?
Is it because while learning English as an ESL i had more examples on soap in exams?
Write in the names. 10 points each:
🍯 Honey
🧂 Salt
🧼 Soap
Your work is phenomenal. Thanks for creating. Don't stop!
Oh maan. Choosing Truman show for this topic was a brilliant idea!
Ondrej Hrdy he didn’t choose the Truman show, it was predetermined
The video was well done. But it is misleading.
How so?
I definitely agree with lots of this except the complete inhibition of free will. I don't think it goes away, just becomes more difficult to use. However, I do believe we have no free will because everything that happens is just a reaction of many things that happened, which are themselves a result of many things that happened, and so on and so on, until the beginning of the Universe, the first thing to ever happen. And while it might seem random, it isn't. An explosion in a circle will move all particles with equal energy and in an outward direction. If some particles are in different positions or different distances, they will receive different energy, which will affect as well how much energy the other particles receive and in what direction they move. So the beginning of the Universe has set all forces in motion which will travel just in response to everything that goes around. This way, everything becomes predictable, and we have no free will. The past, present and future are a domino effect set in motion by the beginning of the universe. Even ourselves, everything inside us, and outside of us, even what we do. Thus we have no free will.
.
In my case, though, I am a Christian, and I believe in Calvinism. I forget about it and go along with what I think and what I feel, and I don't think it matters if I keep in mind or not that I don't have free will, because either way, I will do what I will do. And I am fine with it anyway. I also understand I am not in control of my life. I might be in control of my actions (from a free will perspective) but I am not in control of what happens to me or what opportunities I will get in life. In other words, do what you will, because you have no free will anyway. And when I preach to someone, I don't believe it is free will for me to preach or not preach, just what happens. Same, I believe it is not that person's free will to accept Christ or not. And if they don't, it is not my free will to keep trying or not. And it is not their free will to be able to resist or not.
Yeh calvinists are compatiblists and thus not hard determinists. But religions are sketchy arnt they, some religious people tend to chop and change parts of their religions to fit in with the science, it's quite sad really that they just can't let go of it but they've probably been brainwashed since they were kids by parents that they trusted and admired. I do feel for them at times, poor fools.
Life is a learning curve.
"Life isn't fair, but is fairer than death" - William Goldman.
Abyssinia Empire life could ve worse that dead, I bet you would prefer to be dead than suffering excruciating pain eternally
Death is the fairest of them all
I don't think anyone really believes they don't have free will: the guy that made this video doesn't even believe it, as seen by how at the end he says, "This kind of thinking allows you to control your behaviours more effectively."
After all this rhetoric, he merely *thinks* he doesn't believe in free will. But he has actually just changed his definition of the term. Instead of deciding what you do, you just "benefit from a logical examination of" what you learn and eat and drink and think and with whom you hang out and "the habits you engage in". We don't control ourselves, he says, we control the factors that control ourselves. We don't drive the car, we just turn the wheel and press the pedals and operate the air conditioning. Totally out of our control.
It seems to me like denying free will allows a person, more than anything, to stop feeling guilty for their own shortcomings.
"It wasn't me", you can say. "It was what I ate for breakfast."
Wonderfully said.
Well one big point of not having free will is that we are constantly affected by our outside environment in ways completely out of our control. What he means by that sentence in particular is that watching this video will lead to behavioral outcomes and thinking patterns (again out of your control) that will make you more mindful about the things you do. It doesnt deny the concept of not having free will at all.
yep, it removes agency from your actions and shows you have external locus of control
@@fiubnl4990 but you can still influence how you react and what you do, ultimately.
@@quantumfrost9467 im not sure what you mean by that comment. every way you imagine you can influence your own reactions or influences to things are controlled by things you have no control over. thats why different people react different to different things.
Of course I have free will, I wasnt given a choice!
I like your backward logic. You should go preach some religion, they actually pay you to think backwards.
@@TheReal_ist 😂
Or you weren't given the choice, only an illusion based on the finite nature of your experience, the argument is you are a mechanistic element in a sea of other highly dynamic mechanisms.
You didn't choose to BELIEVE in free-will but that doesn't mean that you actually have it just because you believe in it. Empathy is more important than whether or not free-will exist.
Is there anything that doesn't happen due to prior causes? If not, where is the free will?
I just paid the lawyer for my will ...it wasn't free I can assure you !
Now I need to know why we DON'T eat owls.
Because Sam Harris looks like Ben Stiller.
I've always wondered that myself
Little to no meat
too much pecking
not kosher
This has helped.... I kinda knew some of this stuff but the way you put it out was so amazing... And I learnt a lot more ..great stuff
Honestly, this is something I see in my own daily life. I do still believe that we can make our own willful decisions in life, but I can agree that many of these decisions are driven by past data points or current physiological needs. Hats off to you for such a fantastic look into a topic I never really thought much about.
It is not human Will, Drive, Desire and Motivation (WDDM) that is free or unfree; it is the PHYSICAL MOVEMENT caused and compelled by them that is either free or unfree (!!!)... Will, Drive, Desire and Motivation are nouns sharing the same meaning. 'Choosing' and 'deciding' are solely dependent upon and determined by the strength and intensity of your WDDM to experience the greatest degree of PLEASURE. Therefore, 'making a choice' and 'making a decision' are not 'free': they are solely determined by, dependent upon and constrained by - and not free of, or free from (!!!) - your WDDM to experience the greatest degree of PLEASURE. As puppets are compelled (or 'driven') to MOVE by strings attached to their limbs; human beings (and all Living Things) are INSTINCTUALLY compelled to MOVE by or via WDDM
I like your conclusions and agree: rather than just blame yourself for failing at something, it would be more advantageous to look at the conditions that affected you and to change them, for example. But I disagree on your statement that we don't really have free will. And trying to blame things like emotions and desires and thoughts for your actions sounds like a cop-out. Emotions, desires, thoughts etc. are not decisions! Yes, for sure they have a strong influence on us, but we still have free will to choose how we act.
Exactly, we can USE emotions and CONTROL our desries i.e we can control our desire of eating more.
Agree with your view! I think of it like, thoughts are not decisions and your decision are what is held accountable
@@terbbert I really like that! (how you put it :)
An example I just thought of is: imagine a soldier in a war zone, with bullets flying all over, and him behind cover. He feels scared, terrified even. Yet he chooses to get up and attack the enemy (despite his fear). This is called "courage". I think it was C.S. Lewis who wrote: a soldier who is under fire and feels no fear and therefore attacks is not brave, he is crazy. Thus "courage" is not the absence of a feeling of fear, but rather the decision to still do your duty despite the fear.
In the greater skim of things there is no free will. Maybe you'll confusing willpower with free will, you are presented with options and based on your past knowledge from personal experiences or not you will act accordingly.
@@collinphiri910 There is no "will power" without free will.
This is mind blowing. Its actually messing with my head. So we can't control our natural drives, feelings, desires or inclinations. When we make choices.. they are based on a combination of random thought, past experience, knowledge, desire and emotion. Not free will. This is fascinating.
Paul ClipMaster I know, and the thing is, it doesn’t change the fact that we can still love the people we love. In fact, it establishes that we cannot blame people for who they are, or what they’ve done. A psychopath never asked to have that brain. He never intended to grow up and kill people. He had no say in the matter. I tell people all the time, what if someone killed my wife? I could go on a psychotic break and kill him. Maybe I’d do nothing. I have no idea what would happen, but if I did kill him, it really would go against everything I believe in, so to speak. But would it? The manner in which I act, the way I respond to that tragedy... I wouldn’t have any control over it, just as he didn’t. If I had his brain, if I had lived his life, I would in fact be a psychopath, and it would be me killing innocent people.
Surely we have to lock some people up to ensure public safety until we can cure psychopathy. However, we truly can’t hate them for what they’ve done, or who they are. Nobody chooses to kill multiple people, only to spend 50 years in jail, or face the death penalty. If we actually had free will, we would surely choose to be happy. Nobody would choose to grow into an adult and bring misery to complete strangers.
wow! one of the best videos I have seen on the topic. Thanks for that.
14:1 like dislike ratio in a video that's 24 minutes long and uploaded only 2 minutes ago. If only people had the will to watch it first
you're implying it's the people that dislike so early that are at fault. Why not the people that just willfully (and blindly) accept what the simple title of the video suggests?
Latent Soul That's exactly what he's saying.
I very rarely use the like button, it's usually after I've watched a significant portion of the video or completely so and I REALLY enjoy the content or find it that helpful. Dislike button, I don't think I have ever used .-.
I'm sorry, how do you gather I'm passing judgements based on my experience and assumption?
I meant that as a joke because of what the video is about. lol
I'm actually really glad i saw this video. I've felt really alone in these thoughts because i spend most of the week inside my room and i have a lot of time to think, and after seeing patterns in trains of thoughts for so long made me realize that I am predicted by my biological processes. Most people think its a bummer but I'm never asking for someone else to tell me how to help myself, only for the company.
What I got out of this is that we have no immediate free will in the short term, but we can take actions that will alter our long-term thinking patterns, thus leading to desired responses. So in a way, we do have free will in the long term.
This video challenged my preconceived notions of free will and gave me a lot to think about. Thank you!
I thought it said Free Wi Fi. Me dumb.
We tend to see what we value.
"Why you don't have free Wi-Fi & Why that's OK"
You just need to eat more owls.
Your not dumb. It’s just the experiences of your life and your own biology that have made you a person who would read it and think it says “Free Wi Fi”.
@@Ara-wo5ho 🤦♀️
He starts by asking if we could rewind the tape of Truman’s life could he have chosen differently. This is an interesting way to frame the issue and highlights two weakness of his presentation. 1. That experiment has never been tried and in a sense likely never will be tried so no one knows the answer. What would it mean if he could? What would it mean if he couldn’t? And why would that be and why would that be significant?
But 2, why would a single person making a different choice in the exact same situation if they were the same person they were when the made the choice the first time be the sine qua non of “free will”? He never defines “free will” or defends why we should accept his definition.
His argument is that each human mind is a coherent process of neurology, biology, cognitive processes, etc. What we ask of free will generally is that we are free to authentically be ourselves. That’s what we have. If you injected chaos into the coherent process in the name of Free Will because you don’t like the causality would that make us “free”? No. It would make us arbitrary. If we could, for argument’s sake, establish that our decisions were dictated by a soul and imposed on the brain it would not greatly change the analysis of the freeness of the will. Either the soul would be a coherent process whose next step was caused by the current state or it would not and would be arbitrary. Which would be “free”?
But beyond that there are still other weaknesses but I’m sure this is too long to read already, so I’ll confine my comments to those for now.
What did you mean by the soul ?
For the purposes of my hypothetical statement, I tentatively stipulate that a “soul” is a thing that inputs information to the brain and exists outside our current capacity to detect (IE, being extra-dimensional or incorporeal, etc) but for the purposes of the hypothetical statement had been detected and determined to be the actual origin of personality and thought.
that's exactly what I thought.
@@tidmartin4794 Trying to make a serious argument, while mentioning "the soul", which there is zero scientific evidence for. Also, you never define "the soul". Your argument eats itself.
Erik MS I defined “soul” in my last comment that I posted about a week ago in this thread.
My comment that involved a “soul” is not scientific in nature but is relevant only to the form of his argument.
Looked at from outside(objectively) the will is causally determined, and that looked at from inside(subjectively)it is free.
I do not control a lot of my thoughts. I have TONS of intrusive thoughts.
what kind of intrusive thoughts
Thats why peoples meditate
@Bush 911 - You are just addict to entertainment, you want things to be as "loud" as possible. Meditations is all about silencing stimulation to be able to hear more. You cannot hear the wind if you are constantly screaming. Meditation stimulate your brain alot ! It takes a lot to pay attention at will
@@Hgulix62 you also don't control your meditation lol, you're surroundings, personality, bodily needs, and belief will affect whether the meditation is effective or not, some people, like me don't find meditation a effective silencers lol
@@aeircrown7994 - I said meditation silence the mind et enhance focus and tranquility thus limiting intrusive thoughts; i never said you are in control of it.
The paradox of unfree will. I chose what I choose but I didn't choose to choose what I chose.
Why do you choose to concern yourself with that paradox?
This video isn't so much about how we don't have free will, but about how decisions are made from a wide variety of inputs, many of which we don't have control over and may not even be aware of. But we do have control over some of the inputs.
Which ones?
If you are seeking out certain input or to avoid certain input that isn't your choice either.
@Celtic Revival / Adfywiad CeltaiddYou control the reasoning you put behind your emotions and experiences; you create some of the inputs (perceived as "random" thoughts).
I had no choice but to write this comment.
or did I?
SuperAtheist you had a choice, pleb, it just isn’t free lol
* Vsauce music plays *
I had no choice but to read it.
.
.
.
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And reply
The Big Bang is the reason you wrote this comment. It's also the reason I answered you. The Big Bang constantly influences everything in the Universe. And you don't know it yet but you influence the futur ALL THE TIME.
You believe in unproven theories, but thats ok because you didn't have free will.
Imagine how much advertisements take advantage of this. You see something and think "wow that's so cool" and click the buy button. How much of that was free will?
we might not have free will, but we can always have free wifi :D
He visto este video al menos 10 o 20 veces en un periodo de 6 meses, es bastante completo y bien construido el guión.
It may be confirmation bias, but this TH-camr is a goldmine of intellect.
My unconscious self agrees with you :)
A very simplistic analysis that denies responsibility for our actions. A very dangerous proposition. Thoughts and impulses don't necessitate actions or reactions. Much can be overcome and often is with much haste and waste.
Just the same. Free will doesn’t mean that the world is absolute chaos either. Life is balance, yet infinite.
What's your tendancy? Are you on my frequency?
I think that some people confuses free will with counsciousness. You ARE counscious of yourself, but you CANNOT decide what you will decide in the next seconds you think.
You can try to force yourself to think something, like for example repeating baboon in your head. But the moment you get tired of it your mind starts roaming freely again.
Ikr
Free will in and of itself doesn't make sense. But I believe religious people in the past used the term of free-will as a way to interpret what they were attempting to describe as consciousness.
"Then you can start making modifications" - If we don't have control over our actions then how can we choose to make modifications...
Your pre-wired brain acknowledges that you can make modifications to change your future behavior for the better and as a result you tend to engage in those sort of activities which improve your personality. No you cannot choose through free will to make modifications but the realization of not having free will can impact your decisions, the same way all other insights you've had in your life impact your decision-making.
@@TheEffectoss Go tell your children that they don't have free will and are not responsible for their actions. See how that ends up.
@@faustianrevival3816
That's what I told mine. It's turning out very well.
You don't. Just sit back and observe the change as it happens. Your ego is an illusion!
By realising that what you previously thought you wanted is not wat you really want.
"You can't decide what you will think of next. You can't think your thoughts before you think them. That would require you to think them, before you think them." - Sam Harris
I think the ability to ask yourself what you want and to always receive the ultimate answer your could give to yourself is empowering. Everything was determined. And yet - maybe, knowing this - is what makes us into better humans. Into _who_ we were meant to be. The "issue" is that it changes our interactions with others. I can just not be mad at someone who makes a mistake if their mistake was determined before they ever made it.
You can think multiple thoughts and decide which to say and act on
One of your most impactful videos so far (at least for me). Thanks for getting your arse off the couch unlike most of us to share what you have learnt. Respect xxx
It tooks me few hours to think about the subject..
I was thinking about all our decisions based on something else, but not us. That made me kind of sad...
So i kept thinking..
How our world is formed with atoms and molecules..
How they counteract with each other and compose into complex structures..
such as living beings with brain.. humans with consciousness..
Then i started to compare it to computers, programs, neural networks..
In the end, i've understood that our brain is a real deal.
We don't just use the data we receive from external sources, we can generate a new one using our thinking mechanism.
We make our decisions based not only on external knowledge but also on our own knowledge, which is a free will if you will =)
And, our own knowledge is the result of our own interpretation of external knowledge, that we built and changed over time. And it was entirely your choice to be skeptical about the initial conclusion, rather than just be sad and accept it.
Emergence is the refutation of reductionist thinking and the lack of free will. We don't really understand how systems work, and we would like it to be a chain of cause and effect, but the more we look at it the less that proposition makes sense. I'm not saying we do or don't have free will but it surely is something curious. And I always think about "yeh, I probably don't have free will, or consciousness, but it'd be very funny if I did and thought otherwise"
Yehhhh soo you know of law of attraction(manifesting, law of actions, etc)? Tee hee hee if u don’t have fun learning :}
Computers know thing. But humans understand them. Computers act. But humans think.
Whether we control anything at all, I have no clue... however I love your conscious choice to put Ed Shearmur's Grand Central track from K-Pax in the video - keep doing great work, mate! :)
I somehow thought March was the girl's name and SOIP was the word.
Send halp
I did watch your entire video to understand your point of view. Free Will Does Exist. If we separate de influences coming from the subconscious mind (programmed mind) and the conscious mind (temporary and present thinking) then we realize that Free Will operates in the Conscious Mind which in turn can have a changing effect on the subconscious mind if we choose to. Otherwise, we would be acting out on every thought that comes to our Conscious Mind, from the Subconscious realm, without any personal control or personal responsibility over our actions. I totally agree with you that our Programmed Subconscious Mind sends thoughts and ideas to our Conscious Mind but the Free Will that resides in our Conscious Mind is the one that "helps" us decide whether we should make a move or not on the thoughts or ideas that are now in our "Consciousness." Otherwise, we would never be responsible for our actions and personal decisions. Thank you for your video. It sure made me think deeply on this important issue.
First of all let me say I really enjoy your videos, not only as informative entertainment, but also on a practical level (I’ve been enjoying a near-zero-sugar diet for over a year now - Your earlier videos played a large part in that decision). Thank you.
That said, this is the first one I have some issues with. It may be semantics, but I find the title misleading. Firstly, when you speak of free-will (or, specifically, the lack thereof), it can be upsetting in two different ways - The first is “predeterminism”, the problems of which should be self-explanatory. The second is that it takes away something which, for want of a better word, is divine. If we have no free will, then we’re simply automatons. A third point, which I found whilst researching this very argument, is in regards to several studies that showed when people are convinced that they “don’t have free will”, the subjects’ moral decisions became noticeably decrepit.
I think the title is misleading in that it’s not so much, “Why we don’t have free will”, as it is “Why we lack self control”. I don’t believe self control and free will are comparable in this instance.
And one final (subjective) little niggle I have with the video is… Sam Harris. I simply find his black & white explanation that “It’s (literally) all in your head” approach overly simplistic. It’s a tangle in logic which, although can’t be disproved, allows no room for ANY experience outside of, “It’s all just neurons firing… nothing else!” Sorry, but I want my universe to have a little bit more color than that.
Travis, regarding causal determinism, "predeterminism" would be a logical impossibility. If the future has already been caused then it would already be here. No event is caused until the last prior cause of the event has played itself out. And the last prior cause of a deliberate action would be the act of deliberation that directly preceded it.
Marvin, please read my statement again. You seem to think I am in agreement with "predeterminism", which I 100% AM NOT. I was simply stating that saying "One has no free will" is like saying "Everything has already been decided". I do not agree with the second statement, and therefore I have trouble agreeing with the first. My argument is one of semantics between "free will" and "self control". I propose that every time the phrase "free will" is used, you substitute it for "self control". eg. "Free will inhibition level 5", would now become "Self control inhibition level 5". If that were the case, I would pretty much agree with everything in this video.
Travis, the phrase "free will" refers to the empirical event where a person chooses for themselves what they "will" do, when "free" of coercion or other undue influence. It is literally a freely chosen "will". And it is an empirical fact that we are "that which is doing the choosing". The fact that our decision-making process is deterministic (given the same person, the same issues, and the same circumstances we will make the same decision) does not change the fact that it is still us doing the deciding. The fact that some of the calculations in making the decision are conscious and others are performed below conscious awareness also does not change the fact that it is still us doing the deciding. And it is only when the mental illness or injury impairs normal judgment that we lack free will.
Marvin, it sounds very much like we are in agreement! My entire point is that we DO have free will. I am also very aware that there are times when our subconscious can override our "willpower", but is that the same as not having free will? I don't think so. As you said, "it is we who are doing the choosing". Even in situations when "mental illness or injury impairs normal judgment", is the person lacking free will, or lacking self control? The person will simply "choose" to one thing or another, even if that thing is not socially acceptable. A person's free will to choose has not been lost, even if that person's ability to control his/her impulses has been diminished. We DO have free will! We DO have free will! That's why I was opposed to the title, being "Why we don't have free will" - As I have already said, it's a semantic argument. I happen to agree with most of the video's content, it's just that one issue with the title that bugs me.
Indeed. My criticism of the video is a bit more extensive. You'll find it at the initial comment level, 2 days ago.
I believe there is a fundamental difference between what we consciously choose to do and what we do as a force of biology, habit, subconscious, or similar "automatic" impulse. Even if what what we "will to agree with" is just a choice to agree with one of the myriad semi-random thoughts that appeared in our brain (which is another point I would argue against) it is the will that is important: our experiences, genetics, environment, and much more may greatly limit our possible choices but it is that which we specifically choose to act on, or agree with, that represents our free will. I don't think it is so much that we need to accept that we have no free will, I think it is that we have to accept that what we can control with our will is relatively small.
I thought your comment was profound.
accept what influence you have at scale toward your free will. environment, diet, exercise, and media consumption. these are factored into influence to create scalable free will.
Barkley Darbonne you don’t get it
If you go to jail for murder, you can't use lack of free will as an excuse no matter how much you believe it.
What a brilliant video. Really appreciated your optimistic appraisal at the end
I never asked for this.
You dont have a choice, do you?
Jensen?
No one exists on purpose.
Great video, enjoyed it. I would argue with your phrasing on beliefs. Beliefs are just ideas (e.g. ketogenic diet is the best for losing weight; intermittent fasting is the best to lose weight - both are beliefs) but it is the attitude we have that matters (e.g. one will have an attitude which prefers ketogenic diet over anything else, another which prefers intermittent fasting, other one will have an attitude which does not like any of those - but all of those people would have considered all of the beliefs). Therefore, the preference for beliefs (which you call in the video as beliefs) is actually attitude. If you want to understand more about it read some Solomon's work about attitude.
Philosophers think of beliefs as propositional attitudes, where a proposition is (roughly) the meaning of a declarative statement (i.e., a statement that can be true or false). If I believe that today is Monday that means that I think that the statement "Today is Monday" is true.
I've always thought as belief as something that is true to the brain because it wants it to be. Something as a fact with out proof.
In other words, either of those diet being the best is a quantifiable provable matter if one considers all factors pertaining to the individual and the diets construction. There is in fact a best answer, but one has to consider all factors of an equation.
A scientist could make a blanket statement and say "Keto is the best diet for 60% of people, as intermittent is more difficult in comparison and the benefits of keto slightly overtake that of intermittent fasting, however 40% can't do keto for health reasons, so intermittent would be best for them" for a hypothetical example.
Most things are actually quantifiable, but unknown factors are always present. This is why we work with information we have. Our brains already do this in every decision we make anyway.
This is why I encourage hope, not belief. People who believe in things that can't be proven or disproven or have actively been disproven are terrifying to me. Going with something that doesn't have any proof or so little or even more likely to not be worth believing because the possibility is so low.
But I like hope. I hope there is an afterlife, I hope that I have a soul or some special portion of energy that retains consciousness after I die and I get to be with loved ones again, maybe explore the universe with out fear of death.
I don't believe in it at all, but I hope that it's true.
To decide HOW MUCH free will, IF ANY, we must FIRST EXACTLY solve the differential equations that govern all atoms in our bodies (from quantum mechanics, such as Schrodinger), and THEN see HOW FAR from the exact solutions the motions of those atoms deviate.
What about the uncertainty principle? If the human mind is a puzzle, I don't think we can really solve it, because we are it
Wow! Such an interesting video!! Very useful!!👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👍🏼
I think some people have more free will than others.
@Celtic Revival / Adfywiad Celtaidd Some possible evidence: If two people commit to never use addictive drugs, the one who has used those drugs recently is less able to keep that commitment than the person who has never used drugs, when those drugs are made accessible.
Yeah, those are the ones that don't believe in free will. They show the most signs of actually having it. It pushes them to consider possibilities and to be creative, knowing nothing really matters.
Rambo ate an owl.
What
You had no choice, but to read this comment.
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But you didn't have to read more. You decided to.
... And those of us that did read more, did so as a result of our respective sets of dispositions, just like he talks about in the video.
Just because we call something a 'decision' it's still just as conditioned as the rest of our behavior.
Excactly.
PorkPie Hat D Mingo didn’t read it
What didn't you read?
PorkPie Hat D Mingo if you posted something at the bottom I didn’t read it. If you didn’t, then I didn’t know about it.
these are very though provoking. Very well done Sir.
sometimes when i forgot what i planned to do or to say, i simply try to remember what i was thinking or doing before that idea arrived in my head.
Somehow the chain of thoughts rebuilds itself again
We don't live in a classical Newtonian world. Every particle in the universe is existing in a probabilistic state, and this is observable on the macro scale. In fact, modern technology only works because of quantum mechanics. In a nutshell, nothing can be known with 100% certainty. Everything just has a waveform denoting statistical distribution. Massive simple interactions can be predictable to high (yet still imperfect) precision. However, in the case of the incredibly complex network of billions/trillions of tiny electrical signals in your brain, emergent thoughts aren't even remotely predictable. If something isn't predictable, it's inherently not deterministic. Literally nothing in the universe is deterministic.
It follows that if it is theoretically possible to predict a system of complexity X, then it is theoretically possible to predict a system of complexity x+1. And you're not using the philosophical notion of determinism here, which is nonsensical.
It's not theoretically possible to predict a system of any complexity to 100% certainty. And if there's an uncertainty about something, it's not predetermined.
GlacialTempestX I did not claim that it was possible to predict something 100%. And uncertainty exists because of lack of information. I can be certain that a coin has a 50% chance to land face up. Even if complete information results in probabilities, that’s just a different external factor to replace causation, which still gets in the way of the idea that we our choices are unbound from this world.
The point of this video is not to prove that the entire world is deterministic, but rather that we have no free will. In a non deterministic world, we could still very much have no free will.
Introducing randomness doesn't make it any more free, it just makes it more random.
This is giving me an existential crisis...
Or the illusion of it...
Nothing is real...
Fuuuuuuuu******
Exactly for me too, stay strong buddy.
There is no *spoon*
Every time you fall asleep, you die
Someone else wakes up in your body thinking they are you
You are alone, trapped in your own mind
The world around you is your lie
Soon you will be nothing
Never again hear sounds
Never again see colors
Never again be anyone
Search for Marshmallow People 1-3, this poem is from the third one
Has it gotten better since? Did it change your thinking fundamentally? Asking cuz I feel it too
Please respond, I'm desperate
My religious views have always instructed this to a degree. That while we don't necessarily have control over what thoughts play across the stage of our mind, we do have control over whether or not those thoughts are entertained. We may not control our habits, but we do control which habits we practice. We may not control our physiology, but can support it in a way to produce the most closely results we want. Being aware of these bodily algorithms and how they tap into our behavior at the very least gives us an opportunity to have a better understanding of our day to day behavior
Thanks, great video, I loved it! Just two corrections:
1. The results in the Israeli judge study were likely due to the order in which the judges organized their court cases over the course of the day, placing easy cases with very unlikely parole closer to lunch.
2. The James-Lange Theory of Emotion was posed by two guys (not one): William James and Carl Lange.
The fact that you put a Robots scene in there caused my adrenaline to go up.
When did "no free will" become "less free will?"
To me these arguments reveal that your desire is the most central part of who you are. And of course your desires fluctuate depending on physiological conditions. We seem more present than deterministic arguments make us out to be. The examples where you try to force your future self to feel a certain way fail because you are not your future self. You are present with desires. Those desires change. You don't always control that. Consciousness doesn't have to mean control. If you leave any room for a sliver of will, then you have will. Yes your buttons can be pushed. But are you only pushed buttons? I'm yet to be convinced by the Sam Harris argument
I think the best example is the test that showed unconscious decision 7 whole seconds before the area of the brain that we understand deals with consciousness even knew of the decision. And this was simplistic "right or left" decisions. Things that don't matter much.
I think of us like a computer and a monitor (granted a bit more complex, but it works for an analogy) Our consciousness is a monitor, all our unconscious processes and everything else is all the parts of the computer, even down to eating being a power supply of like a battery.
Watch the video "You is two" by CGP grey in studies on split brain patients, it explains how the left speaking brain hemisphere confabulates reasons for action even though it doesn't actually know. It stands to reason that this might even be the crux for the self-perpetuating feeling of free will, explaining past actions to current self even if there isn't an exact one.
Another example is think of the first color that comes to mind, and keep asking the subsequent answers why you thought of that explanation to that. Eventually you come up empty and don't know why.
Last but not least, lack of free-will explains one key thing that seems to baffle every person to hell and back. Why can't we change behavior? Or rather, why does it take so freaking long to do so? Because patterns are reinforced and forming a new one is like making a new path in the wild. It has to be treaded on over and over and over again to start to make it a viable path. I think if we had any semblance of free-will, we could change behavior quite quickly.
Free-will is also a paradox term. Free means uncontained, directionless, with out constraint, will is exertion of direction and purpose. The very term defeats itself in a way.
The interesting thing about the topic of Free Will is culture. Cultures are human operating systems. It is the cultures that form a great deal of our identity, perception and social understanding of society. Despite variation with individuals in the same culture, each person has a foundation built up by their culture despite their respectively different experiences with the said culture.
This is an Interesting Video and it did give me food for thought. And coincidentally I have been thinking on and of about this particular topic for some time now. But I differ in the conclusion I have arrived at, which is free will does does exist from the action or perspective. Let me explain and start by acknowledging that some of what you said is accurate. 1. One does not choose there like and dislikes 2. Human do have a propensity for instinct and involuntary action. 3. If left unchecked these factor can drive a majority of a person actions.
Now the Explanation, my perspective revolves around one major aspect... The determination or quantification of free will. How do you determine free will. The simple answer would be from an action taken or withheld. From this basis it is easy to assert and extrapolate instances of free will from those that are driven by environmental or biological factor. And my proof can be drawn from assessing this questions...
1. Have you ever performed a task you dislike?
2. Have you ever refrained from a liked activity?
3. Have you ever undertaken a great endeavour, which is a complex mix of choices both desirable and undesirable?
3. Why did you make those choices?
4. What is your responsibility in those choices?
5. Is discipline an internal or external factor?
6. Is discipline an implicit expression of free will?
I find that when you observe conflicted scenario such as the first two queries you will find that there is an added agent that does not fall in either biological or environmental. This agent is the ego expressing itself. Free will is the expression of the ego through choice to do or not to do, whether consciously or passively. That said I believe the perceived decline in free will is just a symptom of persons choosing to go on autopilot, in which the individual still made the choice consciously at some point in there life to flip that switch. On the other hand consider someone considering to undertake strength training for the first time. The experience being quite unpleasant and yielding no results for a couple of months, even to the point testing the belief that they would get stronger if they did it. But this individual will push thought the ordeal through sheer force of will and 6 to 8 months later gain the first fleeting glimpses of results. This individual has a choice stop or continue. All I can say is the number of weight lifter with rippling pectorals or number of pro athletes or number of musical prodigies is not zero. Do you follow where I am going with this. Free will is linked to all if not most great achievement humans undertake. Also due to the illusive nature of some of this achievements, meaning they are not guaranteed, the drives for this can not be a purely social pressure. They require the individual to enforce there free will to keep training, keep trying, keep moving toward until the goal is achieved, days, months, years or decades later and someone can receive the endorphin rush and euphoria of have done something great.
Well explained
This is not free will you are talking about. It’s called delayed gratification. Self control in order to achieve more. People actually learn it, more often in their childhood. So again your experience defines whether you will perform task you don’t want to or not.
free choice does not equal free will. You can choose to ask a girl out on a date or not, but you cannot choose what has led you up to that point. Your birth. What happened before your birth. The big bang...etc.
This is something many of us already know about via different choice of words, "Force of habits."
On the subject of "Do we control our thoughts?"
I would argue that there are [at least] two "levels" of thought:
1. The thoughts that "simply appear" into consciousness
2. The thoughts we think when we're actively contemplating something, which we use to make big decisions. (i.e. free will)
I argue that being self-aware means we examine and curate our "random" thoughts from a higher level.
Thoughts are like clothes. You chose what to were
@@romanianhustler3309 "You can't decide what you will think of next. You can't think your thoughts before you think them. That would require you to think them, before you think them." - Sam Harris
Every point you mentioned has a version of choice
You can choose to change yourself long term, even if you can’t always in the moment
It's funny that you include that quote from Daniel Dennet our of context, considering how he is very much publicly against saying that free will doesn't exist
Before you can answer the question of "Do we have free will", I think you first have do define what is meant by "we or I". Is the idea that we have free will an illusion, or is the idea that you are your body the real illusion? If you agree with the premise that everything you are is the result of causal interaction, and as such is predetermined, and that all of those interactions could (theoretically) be traced back to the moment of creation, then what you really are is what the entire universe is doing at the point we call here and now. So what you see as your body and mind is really just the tip of the iceberg so to speak.
I think when you look at it from that perspective the question of free will does not make sense, because even though it feels like you are a stranger in the world being pushed and pulled by forces beyond your control, the real you, the deep down whatever there is, is what you are, only you have this illusion that is not true. So unless you subscribe to some supernatural force that operates outside of nature, how do you separate yourself from the entire universe? Other than through the illusion of perception, but the reality is, Your It. read Alan Watts, he explains it far better than I.
We are kind of the universe experimenting It self, right?
Surely the only thing we know is real is what we perceive. What "I" perceive is what is "real" to me. What I choose to eat is perceived as my decision and therefore I have a free will.
@@ezegolder5272 yup
@@FredXR76 no
@@FredXR76 Perception is subjective.
This video is good yet so dense that u gotta rewatch it to fully get it
Your life is a concatenation of moments (flavors). All is given. Even this realisation and the feeling of fear or liberation this realisation can bring. Sometimes when life gets intense i totally forget this fact and i get dragged down by the river of life. Then when things settle down i wake up and i feel free once again. I can't help it. I'm just the watcher!
i would have approached the entire topic from a different angle.
what is free will? so far, nobody could define that. what is a "free choice" and what is a "non free choice"?
if you claim free will is possible, can you explain how it works? what would you have to do to build a machine that can make free decisions? what is the underlying principle? what are the materials used?
currently, we know about what we call elementary particles. those are either predictable or random. how can you build something "free" out of these elements?
so far, nobody could answer any of these questions.
all these questions are answered, but you might not agree with the answers. Just look in this comment section, lol
Depends on what you define as "free". If you define it as something that is not determined by cause and effect like this video then there is nothing that is free. If you define it as something that has many possibilities then everything is free to a certain degree. If the definition collapses then it is a false definition so the latter is the true definition of free.
Due to quantum indeterminacy and the butterfly effect everything is defined as free because we are not able to know the exact cause and effect of any system at an elementary and large scale. This means if you were to build an AI that is capable of doing everything humans can then it can be considered to have free will once integrated into society.
Also machines can be considered free but do not have a will. A will or consciousness is created at the cultural level. You cannot describe consciousness as materials but it can created in a vessel of materials.
i quickly went through the comments, but i saw no answers for any of my questions
I'm not surprised you didn't find answers. Skimming comments for the answers to life itself is like trying to skim a physics book to learn rocket science
i wasn't looking there to find answers, but to confirm my hypothesis that there were none
did you say it's possible with training to overcome our natural way of reacting ...seems we still have some freewill left (less but we have it )
I was thinking the same thing. Don't know if I chose to think that.
@Dougann i am not sure what you mean. But I am interested or triggered in learning more.
Hold up.
Why did you decide to train yourself? Because your brain told you to.
@Connor Todd yes but it's not some mystical thing, it's simply a neural network that has been created by on natural processes. When you "decide" to do something, it's because your brain was wired (or taught) to make that decision. Thoughts are not just mysteriously injected into neurons. The closest thing to a soul would maybe be a pattern of errors, or tendencies, genetic differences, etc. But that's physical abnormalities, not a soul.
@Connor Todd ah
I highly recommend reading Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow. We read it as course material for my freshman philosophy class and it was a pleasurable experience.
Charles, why do you recommend it? I'm thinking of purchasing it but Im not sure if it's worth while. Can you tell me more about what you like about it?
Thanks
E H One thing going for it is how easy it is to read through. Kahneman is a very efficient and concise writer so you’ll rarely if ever get lost. At the end of every chapter he has a couple sentences that evoke whatever lesson the chapter was about to test your comprehension. As far as the content, Kahneman’s analysis of the logical fallacies derived from the interactions of the conscious brain (system 2) and the unconscious brain (system 1) are really eye-opening. You’ll start to recognize you and others falling for the same fallacies daily. It honestly helps you become a more logical person to recognize the limitations of the mind and how it can go astray.
@@ReconNarwhal is it ultimately about no free will ?
Oh for fucks sake, I just looked up books to help studying 2 minutes ago, one of the books recomended was exactly that one, now I scroll down and see it again
The biggest factor in arriving at my beliefs has been my interactions with other people. I can’t say that other people’s ideologies and theories have influenced me much at all. I look at people’s behavior, and most of what I’ve seen has not had a positive impact.
An anchor can only hold a ship for so long... (Freewheel or no free will) sooner or later the ship is going to need to decide to sink or swim.
Jim Carrey: I pick up the tea because I’m thirsty, is that free will ?
No, it’s not, that’s your body asking for something to drink, your job is to provide it, you can however choose not to drink even when you are thirsty. That is free will, the ability to decide. When you’re tired during a workout, your body may show signs of being exhausted, you can choose to keep going, or you can choose to take a break.
I’ve always disagreed with the idea that we don’t have free will. Most of the assumptions made, like thinking “soap” or “soup”, I honestly wasn’t affected by. You could actually change your desires if you wanted to, probably only certain desires. I’m sorry but I completely disagree. Choosing to eat meat or not, that’s a perfect example of free will. Denial is an example of free will, a person can know the facts, but decide not to acknowledge it, wether that’s a subconscious decision or a conscious one. It’s still a decision. These assumptions oversimplify the human experience. I find that this entices victim mentality.
Do we control our thoughts ? Yes and no. Realizing that money isn’t real isn’t going to get people to delete all their money, because they will likely be aware of the fact that society has a certain functioning. To function in a modern society, it’s best to have some form of money, even if it’s fake. “The repercussions of committing a crime will still prevent people from being criminals” so, if there weren’t any laws, everyone would start murdering and thieving? For certain personality types this may be true, but I’m assuming that most people have a moral compass even without laws. Maybe some of us do need laws, since people were barbaric according to history. I guess the question is: Who would we be if laws didn’t exist?
"you can however choose not to drink even when you are thirsty" But why would you?
"You could actually change your desires if you wanted to, probably only certain desires." How?
"Choosing to eat meat or not, that’s a perfect example of free will. Denial is an example of free will, a person can know the facts, but decide not to acknowledge it, wether that’s a subconscious decision or a conscious one. It’s still a decision." But something made them take that decision, didn't it?
"These assumptions oversimplify the human experience. I find that this entices victim mentality." Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
"Realizing that money isn’t real isn’t going to get people to delete all their money, because they will likely be aware of the fact that society has a certain functioning." And because it has a certain functioning, you decide to not delete your money. Tell me, where is free will here?
The end has little to do with this discussion.
Dong Van not if u decide why the reason is justifiable
When I am pregnant my hormone made me vomit when I ate beef. You could argue that I have the free will to swallow the stuff and not puke it out, but I REALLY really don't want to exercise free will in this case.
Mercure250 damn dude this is the 5th comment I’ve read and you’ve been on every single one. I know you had no choice but to comment on all of them but I hope the universe has enabled you to get a life since then.
Now : *Existential crisis and depression
A week from now: Didn't he in that one video say we don't have free will, we'll I don't remember what his points were so I'll just think of it as "just his opinion"
How do people have this kind of crisis, your past experiences are you, and what you want is your will, and these decisions happen in our minds, so basically... It's still free will, seriously I started listening to this interested but by the end I was like,"you're just describing fee will but complicating it"
@@opal9450 He was saying that our wants are dictated by our personalities and we can't change our personalities, our personalities change because of other things so therefore we don't have freewill. I didn't actually have a crisis but I agree with his points, if someone else knew everything about me he would be able to predict what I would do in the future.
@@maxhonig283 Not really, the human brain is very powerful and complex thing... most of the time. It really is random and doesn't have consistent thought, I dunno, maybe that's just my ADHD though.
We are all victims of physics, life is but a chain of actions and reactions down to the smallest planck scale
Wow. Thank you for creating this.
Free will is an extension of will. It's a skill learned. It's discipline. It's being able to do what you need to do despite how you feel. People with true free will accomplish great things, people who "choose" to believe we have no free will absolves themselves from responsibilities. It's a toxic way of thinking. Are there people that have it harder to impose free will? Of course! We are genetic lotterys after all, but just like 300 pound man with a thyroid condition that refuses to exercise because of his condition , you cheat yourself out of a great deal of what you can accomplish.
You missed the point entirely. The universe is material and deterministic. Our bodies are material and are thus completely subject to the deterministic, cause and effect nature of reality. There is no logical room for free will in the picture. You are focusing "free will" with "self control".
@@logansmith7651 I didn't miss the point. I just refused to acknowledge its validity. I will gladly elaborate why.
When we were merely cells, then your view of material and determinism was valid, but we arent merely cells anymore. We are entire universes of cells with both the same and differentiating processes that make up the individual. Since then we have opened up the knowledge of our own biochemistry. Its not perfect but we can now isolate certain chemical compounds that make us act a certain way. We can experiment with ourselves. We can create music that speaks to our very cells and causes them to feel joy. We can quell our own demons, build ourselves up, and develop ourselves as we see fit, not as the world chose to make us.
So you see, we have gone up a entire dimension of conciousness while people cling onto determinism. We left that ages ago when we created art and learned how to dream. we have exposed ourselves and continue to expose ourselves to stimuli that wouldn't have ever existed when we were evolving. If anything, for the first time in history, humans have free will. what are you gonna do with yours?
@@mucura1
> _We can experiment with ourselves. We can create music that speaks to our very cells and causes them to feel joy. We can quell our own demons, build ourselves up, and develop ourselves as we see fit, not as the world chose to make us._
I'm not sure I understand. How does this exactly diminish the validity of determinism?
Of course we choose to develop things that are conducive to our well-being, because we're social animals that want to survive. It's in our instinct. I'm using the word "choose" very loosely. It's not that we _don't_ make choices but those choices are confined within certain parameters swayed by a huge multitude of factors.
Every decision we make is from complex processes in our brain. From the synapses sending signals to our nervous system allowing us to execute movement, to where thought is produced, to our general psychological makeup. The brain being a physical thing is bound by the laws of physics in this way, by several upon several antecedent causes. So what even is free will given this?
Guys, I want to ask you about free will and decisions... What are your thoughts on my question- So lets say that a person wants to change. How and why does he do that? (Not talking about the results but what's happening within him)
Because look... Why am I on the path to change while my other friends are not? I'm not saying that because that's what I think about myself- it's what I witness lately from my behaviours and experiences. They are the proof that I really do things to change, however small they might be.
I just can't wrap my head around this thought of no free will. Theoretically it makes sense but at the same time- so how do we choose the best path to change, how do we make choices and how can we alter our future? For example- I have this kind of system built within me and developed throughout my life over the course of different experiences that I went through. I'm here, I am who I am (And I' not talking immaterial, ether, spiritual self or something... I'm just simply refering to my brain). WHY and HOW do I make choices that will do better for my future? Is that, in a sense, part of luck (What information I was exposed to in the beginning of my life, what experiences i've had, what my parents taught me)?
My goal is this- build these kinds of beliefs and physiology that would make me be unstoppable. Right now I'm somewhat of a procrastinator, I have to force myself to do things, i've lost my passion for what I used to have it. Yet these were my only goals (those passions, to be exact- singing, rapping, public speaking, acting, basically using my voice for the better). Now I want to come back to that same path of the passion for those same things (Since I know that I really enjoyed them or even still do enjoy them but it's just very hard for me to force myself to do them since there's lack of drive and motivation, which used to be there). So I want to develop that passion once again. I want to create a belief system that I'm unstoppable, that I do whatever it takes to achieve my goals (similair to David Goggins). How do I go about this change? What do I need to do? Experience certain things? Find new information and knowledge that would prove me otherway? Or what else?
And at the same time- is it all luck that I'm thinking about this or do I have some sort of ability to make choices between alternatives?
Gedas The idea of free will is hard to let go of because we have such a visceral feeling that we all have the ability to make choices. On a superficial level, I'd argue that we do have free will. But when you dig deep enough and look at the evidence, you realize that fundamentally everything is determined. Every single choice you think you make is a result of countless events over which you have no authority. To believe in free will is to deny cause and effect. Every thought you have emerges from a subsequent one. In order to truly control our thoughts we would have to be separate from our brains. There would have to be a self, a true "I." And even if there is something mysterious we've yet to discover, like a soul which controls the brain, who controls the soul? And who chose the soul? Where is the free will in this?
This knowledge does not mean you can't better yourself and exercise discipline. You may realize free will doesn't exist, but that doesn't change our deep-seated feeling that it in fact does. It doesn't change the fact that you still have no idea what will happen in each succeeding moment of your experience. In other words, everything may be predetermined, but we still can't see into the future. And so that's where the wonder is. That is why you should still set goals and do whatever it is you want to do, so long as you have the will ;)
Have you found an answer? i am experiencing the same thing.
look into meditation, it will completely change your paradigm. Also examine why you desire to "be unstoppable" ? Is this desire leading to suffering and ultimately preventing you from reaching your goals? Im gonna go out on a limb and say yes it is. Stop worrying about your past procrastination and your future goals, the only thing that matters is the present moment. A daily meditation practice will help you cultivate mindfulness and lead you down a path towards the cessation of suffering. Hit me up if you want me to point you towards some resources
I saw soap because everyone in the comments were talking about soap
I saw soap because of the way the camera was displaying her neck and the side of her face so beautifully. Her skin looked amazing. Something about her posture also reminded me of a soap commercial.
I saw soap because I wasn’t paying attention
"a man can do what he will, but he cannot will what he will"