Do We Have Free Will? - Philosophy Tube

Do you have free will? Are you sure? David Hume might know.

[CARTONofSUKI]

We can choose to do whatever we want but we can't choose to want to do what we want to do.

[zombiesandteaparties]

OMG, I've learned more about determinism and free will in five minutes than I have at school in the pas two weeks, and not in a super over-complicated way!!!

Bless this channel!

[WeAreShowboat]

When my maid comes over she never wants to hang out and have a couple beers.

[antonimaciag]

Man, this video is fucking great. It is extremely pleasant to know that someone has arrived at the same conclusions as you have, and even in the same way, and that they understand and agree with you.

[shelbykupiainen]

I could listen to you talk all day. lol. & I might actually pass my midterm now!

[SeanTheDon]

Olly, please don't ever stop making videos!

[GoldenStar-obdj]

this channel has helped me so much with my philosophy class. By breaking everything down, I understand everything more clearly with your explanations.

[fzysknr]

I'm really glad that you pointed out a few different philosophical responses to hard determinism. Certain deterministic arguments make my depression and anxiety worsen when they come to mind, so just knowing that there are positions that aren't completely exclusionary of the possibility of choice is helpful.

[Javaman]

I liked how you addressed some posts at the end of this. As someone who came out of a strong religious background it is sad that so many people today are repeating the same things they did in the 80s. One would hope that people would be more knowledgeable today. Thanks for taking the time to once again set things straight.

[caricue]

It was refreshing that you immediately identified determinism as a philosophical position (I would say religious) since most people seem to think that it is a scientific principle. Determinism tells you nothing about the real world and how it works.

[arempy]

I see freedom as the space between order and chaos, where there is just enough order for structure and just enough chaos for possibility.

[standupscardina]

That was probably one of the best summaries of the free will debate I have ever heard. You got a lot of information across in a very short turn period. Well done!

[Xidnaf]

I'm on board for compatibalism for exactly the reasons he states.  David Hume FTW!

[OH-pcjx]

Olly I know you’ve come on a very complicated and necessary journey but my god, the glow up, dramatisation, and queering in your recent videos was such a positive direction

[MayaGaster]

As a materialist, I tend to think determinism is unproblematically true. Like Hume, I also feel that the so-called "problems" for compatibilism tend to be due more to semantic sloppiness rather than real philosophical holes in the argument.

I do agree with Hume's definition of free will being something like, "the ability to take action based on one's preferences or personal disposition", but wasn't that given much earlier in the freewill/determinism debate during the Hellenistic Period? Didn't the Stoics make similar claims about the universe being fundamentally deterministic, and yet maintain that our actions are "up to us"? I think Chrysippus defined free will in a similar way to what you cite as Hume's notion of free will; was Chrysippus the first one to define free will this way? Or, am I totally misremembering? 

I also wanted to say a few words about my personal way of thinking about compatibilism and why I think it is fairly unproblematic as general idea. 
So, when we talk about determinism, we are speaking of the entire universe and every material thing in it (which, as a materialist, I tend to think of those two things as being identical) as one whole thing composed of many predictably interacting physical parts. We are saying: If you could stand "outside" or "above" the universe—with a complete and total understanding of its physical laws and mechanisms—you would see an internally-determined system. Why? Because, with a full and complete understanding of the physical laws that govern the PARTS of the system, you can then make extrapolations about events that will happen at many separate levels of complexity. You can determine the movement of atoms over milliseconds, or you can determine the outcome of a decades-long political tussle. 

My thought is this: why are we assuming that "free will" refers to that grandiose of an assumption? When I say that I have free will, I don't mean to say that I have direct and total control/agency at the micro-level of atoms or the macro-level of geopolitical events. After all, as a mere human, I am extremely limited in the possibilities of what I can do at any given moment. I can't stretch my body at will like Jake from Adventure Time; I can't do magic like Twilight Sparkle or fly like Rainbow Dash; I can't even see the wide variety of colors a butterfly or mantis shrimp can see.
So, when I say "I have free will", I don't mean that I can make ANYTHING happen at will. I'm referring only to my ability to CHOOSE BETWEEN a fairly modest set of physically possible options that correspond to the moment in question. And it seems to me that, when I freely choose to stand up and walk across the room, I don't have to be directly choosing how my atoms are moving and which neurons fire at what moment in order for that action to be considering an act of "free will".
When we define free will more carefully, as something like "the ability to freely choose between a set of possible actions" you are really just defining the domain you're talking about. In the human-experience-domain, the fact that, in principle, our universe is deterministic doesn't matter. And in the entire-universe-domain, the fact that humans think and feel as though they make choices doesn't matter that much either! 

[timesof]

My regret today is that I did not find this channel sooner. Good job.
Free will is something I have been pondering for quite a while now, though I drift towards determinism I do not have a conclusion yet so I still say "I don't know". Like most things in philosophy though, I think there is more to look at when questioning free will rather than solely focusing on it. Lets keep thinking though.

[RavensNavy]

Taking philosophy right now... you just helped me a ton w/ my homework!!!!

[msonmiller]

Quite impressed about the change of production quality in your videos

[adafrost]

Many folks dismiss determinism immediately because they don't like the idea of having no say in their actions and are terrified by the implications of what the point of living would be. However, the way I think of life is like a movie or novel; you know it's determined to end a certain way and that it will follow that path no matter what, however, one can still derive pleasure and fulfillment by finding out what will happen next regardless of having a choice.

[aprilraver]

Okay so this is officially the best YouTube channel ever