Do we have free will?

Free will means acting on your own reasons and values without being forced, even if those reasons themselves have causes (compatibilism).

2 Begründungen·1 Quelle·2 Einwände aus anderen Positionen

1. What we care about when we call a choice free is whether it came from your own reasons rather than a gun to your head.

   Stärkster Einwand (Lässt etwas weg), aus Sicht von No, free will is an illusion: Your reasons came from genes and experiences you never chose.

At the moment of choosing, more than one future is genuinely open, and the person, not prior causes, settles which one happens (libertarian free will).

2 Begründungen·0 Quellen·2 Einwände aus anderen Positionen

1. When you deliberate, you experience more than one option as genuinely open.

   Stärkster Einwand (Folgt nicht daraus), aus Sicht von No, free will is an illusion: Feeling free is exactly what we'd expect if we simply can't see the causes of our own decisions.

Our choices are the product of causes we didn't choose, so nobody could have done otherwise and nobody deserves blame or praise in the deep sense.

2 Begründungen·2 Quellen·3 Einwände aus anderen Positionen

1. Brain activity that leads to a movement starts before people feel they have decided, so the feeling of choosing comes after the brain has already set things in motion.

   Stärkster Einwand (Übertrieben), aus Sicht von Yes, our choices aren't fixed in advance: The early buildup may just be random neural noise, not a hidden decision.