Deirdre Barrett - Mysteries of Free Will

Our human sense is that our will is fully free. Our scientific sense is that every action is determined by a prior action. Free will versus determinism is a big question without clear answer.

[jamesruscheinski]

Maybe dreams communicate a loss or restriction of free will. The subconscious level may pick up on this and try to communicate during sleep. The conscious level more focused on choices and actions during the day and probably does not pick up on larger free will issues like the subconscious.

[MOHNAKHAN]

Well explaination in terms of philosophy...👍👍👍

[wingsuiter]

What’s the mystery? It is essentially impossible. Mystery solved.

[jamesruscheinski]

Could conscious choice be limited or restricted during dreams while free will still operating or processing?

[josephanastasi]

I would agree that at best we have diminished free will, as we normally understand free will. However, something makes us make a choice. Even if that "something" is a combination of factors that have nothing to do with free will, the fact that we are under the illusion we are responsible for the choice can act as an antecedent that can affect "choices" or results in future events; thus we have influenced the outcome freely. Unless, of course, you say we are not responsible for any thoughts or actions regardless of how many second or third, fourth, etc thoughts one has on that action. It's all predetermined.

[totalfreedom]

What is the *ego?* It’s a bundle of memories in an empty shell, the *twisted* product of our evolutionary animal heritage where self-preservation is essential for survival: all animals pursue pleasure, avoid pain, and avoid being killed by another animal owing to the instinct of self-preservation. *We all* have that unnecessary product reinforced by heavy societal conditioning except for one known case—Gautama Buddha. The ego has created beliefs like soul, spirit, God, the hereafter, and so on.

Moreover it looks like scientific determinism, the basis of all modern science, governs not only physical processes but also our brain/mind:

_For example, a study of patients undergoing awake brain surgery found that by electrically stimulating the appropriate regions of the brain, one could create in the patient the desire to move the hand, arm, or foot, or to move the lips and talk. It is hard to imagine how free will can operate if our behavior is determined by physical law, so it seems that we are no more than biological machines and that free will is just an illusion._ —Stephen Hawking, _The Grand Design, _ 32, 2010