“Free will”, is the supposed power or capacity of humans to make decisions or perform actions, independently of any prior event or state of the universe
Four reasons why free will doesn’t exist:
A “free will” apologetic might counter-argue with the suggestion, “If free will doesn’t exist, why don’t you do X, or why don’t you do Y?”. But this is a misnomer, because a response to this statement wouldn’t support the anti-thesis that “free will” exists. The key aspect of the concept of “free will” is that it has to do with FREEDOM. If the “will” is constrained, it means “free will” cannot exist. As already stated, the “will” of humans is constrained by biological predisposition, which includes the “will” to SURVIVE (i.e., not trying to commit suicide, not trying to create hazards to physical health). If anything, I think committing suicide is an indicator of “free will”; I believe people who commit suicide are more likely to have a “free will”, than people who instead hold onto life
The issue is that some people seem to have “will” mixed up with “predisposition”. It seems what they don’t realize, is that some “decisions” are not “made”; it’s about the cognitive process that is required to reach a decision, which seems to rely on the neural network of the human brain. For example, if a male exits their apartment and says, “I want to breed a woman by the end of today”, this “decision” already exists as a possibility. It is already a possibility for men and women to breed, and it’s already a part of the biological program for men and women to breed. Therefore the “decision to breed” itself is not crafted as a product that is independent of the event or process by which it is discovered; it’s only admitted as a consequence of a specific thought process as regarding the man having a previous knowledge of its biological capacities and its biological predisposition (to breed or survive)
The male is already hardwired to breed due to biological programming. So if a male desires sex, it’s likely just his brain tricking him into fulfilling its biological function while under the hallucination that it is his own independent “will” to breed. If the man were to be dehumanized in some way, (e.g., castrated, transformed into a full cyborg and his brain is the only organic matter that remains), how can the man be sure his “will to breed” was truly a “free will”, if he cannot retain this “will” under drastically different conditions of his bodily or worldly existence? It’s very improbable that he will, since he would no longer be human, and most non-human creatures do not appear to express any particular desire to breed humans
IMO most humans are not agents; they either have no “will”, or they have a “will” but it’s heavily constrained by biological, societal and environmental factors. Their mentalities, their beliefs and their desires are shaped and confined by the cultures and environment in which they are socialized. At best, a very small minority of humans have something that can be described as matching the idea of an “unconstrained will”
TLDR: Free will practically doesn't exist. Most humans either have a "will" that's constrained, or they have no "will" at all (they are organic NPCs)
Four reasons why free will doesn’t exist:
1. Biological fatalism - The human is hardwired to survive and reproduce. The will of humans is automatically constrained by this biological predisposition to some degree
2. Genetic and environmental determinism – The life experiences of two organisms of the same species can vary depending on their genetic traits, morphological characteristics (e.g., biological sex, sexual dimorphism, facial and body bone structure, health condition of internal organs), and whether they have certain genetic or neurological disorders. Environmental and evolutionary factors can also influence life experiences of an organism, e.g., some “incels” today wouldn’t have been incels if they were born in a different country or different era, where society was less gynocentric, or where safe birth control & welfare state didn’t exist
3. Free will theorem (Conway and Cohen, 2006) – If humans have free will, then so must some elementary particles. This doesn’t necessarily challenge the existence of free will. It only proves that other physical substances must have free will if humans have free will, which can easily come across as absurd when you consider these other physical substances can be microscopic
4. The will is necessarily constrained by having a previous knowledge of something – It Is impossible to desire something that you do not know about; you cannot want something if you don’t know what it is. You must first discover the thing that can be desired, and only after you discover it, then the desire is trigged and directed at the thing which one can desire. The existence of a will depends on a prior knowledge of existence. You cannot want something that you haven’t discovered in thought or in the external world. This also implies the “will” can be steered or swayed by some other entity who has the power to selectively reveal or hide internal or external data from the subject that experiences this “will”
A “free will” apologetic might counter-argue with the suggestion, “If free will doesn’t exist, why don’t you do X, or why don’t you do Y?”. But this is a misnomer, because a response to this statement wouldn’t support the anti-thesis that “free will” exists. The key aspect of the concept of “free will” is that it has to do with FREEDOM. If the “will” is constrained, it means “free will” cannot exist. As already stated, the “will” of humans is constrained by biological predisposition, which includes the “will” to SURVIVE (i.e., not trying to commit suicide, not trying to create hazards to physical health). If anything, I think committing suicide is an indicator of “free will”; I believe people who commit suicide are more likely to have a “free will”, than people who instead hold onto life
The issue is that some people seem to have “will” mixed up with “predisposition”. It seems what they don’t realize, is that some “decisions” are not “made”; it’s about the cognitive process that is required to reach a decision, which seems to rely on the neural network of the human brain. For example, if a male exits their apartment and says, “I want to breed a woman by the end of today”, this “decision” already exists as a possibility. It is already a possibility for men and women to breed, and it’s already a part of the biological program for men and women to breed. Therefore the “decision to breed” itself is not crafted as a product that is independent of the event or process by which it is discovered; it’s only admitted as a consequence of a specific thought process as regarding the man having a previous knowledge of its biological capacities and its biological predisposition (to breed or survive)
The male is already hardwired to breed due to biological programming. So if a male desires sex, it’s likely just his brain tricking him into fulfilling its biological function while under the hallucination that it is his own independent “will” to breed. If the man were to be dehumanized in some way, (e.g., castrated, transformed into a full cyborg and his brain is the only organic matter that remains), how can the man be sure his “will to breed” was truly a “free will”, if he cannot retain this “will” under drastically different conditions of his bodily or worldly existence? It’s very improbable that he will, since he would no longer be human, and most non-human creatures do not appear to express any particular desire to breed humans
IMO most humans are not agents; they either have no “will”, or they have a “will” but it’s heavily constrained by biological, societal and environmental factors. Their mentalities, their beliefs and their desires are shaped and confined by the cultures and environment in which they are socialized. At best, a very small minority of humans have something that can be described as matching the idea of an “unconstrained will”
TLDR: Free will practically doesn't exist. Most humans either have a "will" that's constrained, or they have no "will" at all (they are organic NPCs)
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