Free Will

I've been wondering...(and I don't know why just now, as the thought is very basic)...do people really have free will?

Surely our personalities and instincts (as well as desires, etc.) are formed over time as a result of upbringing and experiences. But within this personality that we've created (or that we've been given by our surroundings) can we make choices? Would our actions be driven by the logic we've accumulated and the morals we've had instilled in us? Wouldn't we be helpless (consciously or otherwise) but to make certain choices?

I'm sure to some (or maybe all) that may not make sense...(one day I'll learn to write my thoughts ) but does anyone have any input? I'd appreciate it.

(Also, sorry if there is always a topic out for this. I checked...and...well...I didn't really find anything.)

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"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" - Howard Beale

Check this multi-page thread about the subject free will.

Also, it is so much more thorough using quotations when you search. If you had searched "free will" with the quoatations, you would have seen 47 hits.

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"Today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

Drat...

Sorry 'bout that. I still getting used to computers.

The other thread is too long... I like to take philosophical questions in a little at a time so if its all the same to you I want to write something right here.

And I feel that we do, I think we all know that at any time we can do anything that we want (so long as we are physically capable) only we don't because it will harm ourselves or because it is illegal or because society dissaproves... etc, etc. But just because these things are "restricted" by some law or some unwritten code of society doesn't mean that whatever it is can not PHYSICALLY be done. so that's my take on it.

what do you think?

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And like that .... he's gone

Before I reply, I want to make sure it piss Slay off. He's been real cool and given us the correct link, so I'll wait to hear what he has to say about a new topic.

Dude, I'm not the Godfather of MoFo, do what you want. I was just showing you that there was a history on the topic, and the best way to search. I also understand why kaisersoze didn't want to read the other thread, have you seen the recent exchange between Yoda and Piddzilla? It drove me to drink!

Urgh... the things I said in that thread, the way I talked only a year ago... fascinating, but I'm embarrassed. One year from now, I'll probably be saying the same thing about this.

I don't know what to say about free will. I think that everything that happens was somehow meant to happen. I think it's self evident that what one person does changes the fate of the future - if you shoot a lady across the street and kill her (let's say she's 23 and just got married, no kids) that lady won't have kids. The kids that aren't there won't have kids and so on and so on. Life combinations that could won't happen (the murdered lady and possible future friends she could have had, the future of any possible kids she could have, the future of her family, and just about anyone she comes in contact with - and even more). What I'm saying is that if there is free will, then everything you do has a consequence - but it's not all about you. It's not a punishment or a reward for yourself. It alters everything. We really should be proud of everything in this world, including the evil - if life had played out differently, then things would not be as they are. You, quite possibly, may not be alive.

So is it all free will? Judge for yourself. Determine the value of your own life. Are you here for a PURPOSE or are you here because of chance? Has your life suited you? Are you happy with who you are or are you mad at all of time for leading you to this existence? How satisfactory is your life? If there is free will, can you change it? Are you sure you can? You didn't have any say in when and who you would be in life, did you? Why the difference now? Because you're concious? Because you're alive and not nothing? What about how your life will affect those alive once you're dead? What you did may affect the lives who are alive. Is your free will still running along then or is it the consequence because of your supposed free will?

Basically, it's all whatever you choose to believe, right? Choose to believe? The free will to believe in free will. Right? The only thing is it's been proven to us that there is life, this ability to be stuck on the planet Earth, to breathe and beat our hearts. People wonder if there is something after this, but what if there was something before? Sure, we can't remember anything, can we, but what if that is just the nature of how it is? Just like there's a nature to life on this planet - a nature to form you and make you whoever you are, body and personality. Is there a blueprint for how things work concerning the beyond, or maybe what came before? Judge for yourself.

Pretty insightful Sexy Celebrity , I like your chaos theory take on free will. How one thing invariably affects another, causing a chain reaction filled with restrictions of what is possiable. I would disagree with you if I could but yeah from the victims point of view in your example... its seems like I'm pretty retricted to what I can do after being shot.

But to make an effort I'm going to have to sortta take a chicken or the egg approach here and say, what about the first "decision, event, action .... etc." wouldn't that "will" be totally unresticted to any consquences and limatations of the past? Therefore wouldn't those decisions demonstrate that there is.