Big Questions in Free Will II? | Episode 1411 | Closer To Truth

How we think about free will affects how we live our lives and structure our societies. In Part II of our following the multi-year ‘Big Questions in Free Will’ project, experts discuss the psychological, social and moral aspects of Free Will. Featuring interviews with Bertram Malle, Eddy Nahmias, Roy Baumeister, Patrick Haggard, Adina Roskies, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, and Alfred Mele.

Season 14, Episode 11 - #CloserToTruth

Closer To Truth host Robert Lawrence Kuhn takes viewers on an intriguing global journey into cutting-edge labs, magnificent libraries, hidden gardens, and revered sanctuaries in order to discover state-of-the-art ideas and make them real and relevant.

Closer to Truth presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

#FreeWill #Psychology Your source for the study of philosophy and college philosophy class materials.

[mathematicalninja]

In a world of what you think you become, the truth is perception

[abouzar]

I feel like in the distant future any intelligent species looking back at us will view our idea of the existence of freewill in the same way as we view people who thought the sun goes around the earth.. Except in this case it seems fairly obvious we are wrong but we believe it because it helps our idea of who we are!

[carnap]

there are two kinds of free will, and I think it is important do differentiate between them. It might be that your brain makes choices before you consciously experience an "illusion" of you making that choice, but it is unrelated to the kind of free will, about which for example hard incompatibilists can talk

[RQITEK]

Love these videos but the narration is quieter then the other scenes. Can you make the voice over and the scenes the same volumes?

[Ploskkky]

I am so surprised at the very superficial and frankly amateurish view on Free Will by some of the researchers. Free Will is not about making superficial choices. Free will is about a much more fundamental issue. The freedom of the Will itself. And Nietzsche already handled that in a fundamental way: (In German Will (Wille) is directly linked to want (will) ). According to Nietzsche to ask about the freedom of the will is a nonsensical question. You always 'Will' what you will and you can not change what you Will. It is neither Free, not is it not free: It is you! You 'simply' Will it. Freedom does not apply to will but to the possibility to do what you Will. Freedom applies to action. If you are captive and want to be free then that is your Will, but you do not have the possibility to act upon your Will.

Your Will is the product of your life, your past experiences, your education, your upbringing, your urges, your instincts. Your Will is you! It is what it is! Freedom has nothing to do with the Will itself, but with the actions that come forth of that Will.

[dennistucker]

I don't know about the "Moral Responsibility". However, I do feel that Free Will is necessary for legal responsibility(or personal responsibility). I also think that consciousness and decision making is tested to determine if a creature(synthetic or not) has free will.

[mockupguy]

How do you define free will? That is when is will free? For the sake of argument let’s examine two simple examples.

It is not unreasonable to assume that your past experiences have a profound impact on your choices. Maybe your history even dictates your choices so that any choice in any situation is predicted by your history. Do you have free will? There is no outside force making you choose one or the other, but the choice is never the less given.

So, let’s continue from there, let’s give you a choice between ten identical marbles in a bowl. Here it would be very difficult for your past experiences to dictate your choice. There are ten identical voices and nothing to make you prefer any of them. So, if there is nothing upon which you can base your choice then it appears to be a random choice. Random might be free in a way, but barely qualifies as a conscious choice.

I am leaning towards the conclusion that in some cases our past makes the choice obvious and in the other cases our choices are more or less random.

Let’s say you eat an apple every morning but one day you take a banana instead. Why? Because you wanted to? But why did you want to? Maybe the apple looked a bit old and you unconsciously concluded it would not be tasty. Maybe you have a beginning toothache and that keeps you from biting into something hard. If there was no reason, then it seems a random choice.

[danielodors]

"If people have free will they feel like they have control over their lives."

I've felt more control over my life when I recognized that my will can not defy reflecting the physical phenomenon that produces it.

If I had free will I know I would be perfect. I wouldn't need food or sleep. I would always have the right answers, and I would always make the right decisions. I would be unaffected by brain injuries or mind altering substances. I would acquire knowledge without study. I would obtain skills without training.

[jacobwhite]

Reason why Free will exists
1. The free will theorem implies our nature is simlar to particles where the decisions are not a function of the past
2. The laws of the universe are designed in such a way to give us higher functions and the idea of free will and god. Do you think this is a coincidence?
3. Genetically cloned rats makes different decisions in the same environment
4. Neuroplasticity is found where you can shape your brain from your thoughts
5. Quantum mechanics completely debunks that this is a deterministic universe which is complete the founding principle of determinsm
6. Peter Tse's concept of neuronal free will in regards to quantum mechanics
7. Near death experience studies. Extremely unlikely to be confabulated as they do not have religious backgrounds and they occur during no brain activity.
Recorded by many medical professionals who are extremely scientific. Even some scientific skeptics have ridiculous arguments
8. We all have a concept of free will and it certainly feels that way.
9. You can find cases of people who have certain genes for certain personality traits in a certain environment yet become completely different people

Spread the word. The determinists are wrong.

[jamesruscheinski]

Free will grows out of consciousness, allows the person to experience. External factors can come between a person and consciousness which hinder the person's ability to experience. The resulting reduction in free will happens to the external factor, not to the person under external influence.

[jesusruiz]

Another important issue that I see here is that, belief does have an important role in this.

[irrelevant]

The sense of free will seems to be a very specific programming by evolution. As such, the purpose of free will must relate to nature's two mandates of survival and reproduction. Since it seems to be a very specific programming, how specifically is it
useful as it relates to survival and reproduction?

[dustinellerbe]

It seems there's more of a concept of limited free will. The ability to choose based on one's environment and past experiences.

[grnDestiny]

Well at least I’m getting close to your latest releases 😂

[kvstw]

I see it as less a yes or no question than a matter of degrees of freedom for many reasons.Just like we have autonomic functions in the brain and functions that require "choice" (free or otherwise) like raising your right or left hand in an experiment that heats up a debate about freewill.One reason for my opinion is that I am a musician and I improvise and write music.When I know a song well enough to improvise I have no idea what is going to come out.The same thing happens when I come up with new ideas.That being said, once I have come up with an idea for a song, or improvised something I start to think deliberately about bits and pieces of what I improvised or in the case of writing a song which direction it will go.The first part of this process is sub conscious and the second requires choice.That alone (at least in my mind) shows a distinct parallel between autonomic functions and ones that require choice and this process .You wouldn't improvise very well thinking about every note before you played it, and you wouldn't get very far in life if you had to constantly think about keeping your heart beating and making sure you breath etc.I see these as metaphors for the extremes of degrees of freedom within consciousness.If every choice no matter how mundane required a free, well measured decision than you would never get to the important ones and much like the proverbial stone age theoretical phys. we would have all been eaten long before we had you think of freewill as more of a hierarchy than a question of absolutes.The mind may wander, but most of us can direct our thoughts as well.A writer has vague outlines and ideas scribbled in a notebook (and plucked out of the ether) long before they write a novel.You may have made a less conscious decision (based on huger) to eat, but put more thought into what you will actually eat.Also, if freewill is a "necessary illusion" than why is it necessary.We have a conscious and sub-conscious mind, but if they work in tandem by degrees to make some decisions, than some are more and some are less free.Of course however, no choice can be entirely free do to constraints such as genetics, peer influence, and experience.I also think our tendency to see things as black and white ( something we are currently and tragically witnessing) is why it has been such a long standing debate.You simply can't even pose the right question if it is presupposed that it will have a yes or no answer. I do have more reasons for thinking this but I don't know if anyone will actually read this and it's already turning into a thesis so i will leave it at that



p.s. it was an impulse to leave this post, but what i posted wasn't. o.k. i'll shut up now;)

[kencusick]

The concept of free will strikes me as an evolutionary adaptation. The belief that we are in control of the world around us lessens anxiety and stress. This enhances the functioning of our immune systems. It makes us healthier.

[JustAnswers]

Lawrence Kuhn thank you so much

Sadly obvious conclusion at the end. freewill is not ultimate control, its not a yes or no. It's in between because so many meshed factors enable it .

[genekhaletsky]

Seems like we are not. Really. Closer to truth.

[Adam-stys]

Well, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong appears to have the ability to choose whether or not he has hair at will.

[scrumtios]

Do you think you can expand on rights and privileges in a future video? That's another thing I've always wondered about