crocodile deathroll

This topic has popped so many times I thought I ought to post this.

I voted that our actions are determined by unconscious physical effects beyond our control

NialScorva

Where's "it's a meaningless concept if you don't have to make apologetics for an omniscient being or an imaginary time machine"?

Osiris

This is a tough one to take a poll on, as the discussions on this subject usually center around the definition of free-will.

Where is the choice "I feel like some of my decisions are of made on my own free-will." ? I can't really check any of the ones presented.

Darth Dane

All I can say is:

4) "All of the above"




DD - "All of the above" Spliff

Theli

This entire poll is based on a false assumption. It equates the "self" to being non-physical (supernatural even). The first choice is absolute, "we" must be in full control of our actions, or they would not be "ours". Unless you wan't to reduce control to mere choice. Also as choice 2 enters the poll it becomes unclear what "we" are.

sourdough

I sure hope YOU are 100% in control when you drive!

Liquidrage

True free will is impossible since no free will mechanism can choose its initial conditions.

There are only two possible options for a free will mechanism.
Either all free will mechanisms start off the same and it is soley environmental influences that create differences.
Or the initial conditions of all free will mechanisms are different, in which case it is these differences which would allow for one mechanism to make a different choice then another mechanism under the same exact conditions.

Soft free will is not an issue, no one denies that people make choices. Well, no one worth listening too.

I find the poll incomplete, lacking in options. I know, but the answer wasn't there.

My answer would have been:
People are in full control of their actions but this says nothing of true free will, which is itself not possible.

Acinom

Ditto. Maybe the poll should be -- Soft determinism or hard determinism? Take your pick.

Absolute free will does not exist. But to maintain our sanity we have to define free will in terms of options, the classic "could have done otherwise" premise.

crocodile deathroll

Thank goodness I am not, because we know that if we are driving and a kid jumps out in front of the car, we hit the brakes without thinking - it happens as a subconscious reflex.
This is a preexisting subconscious process at work there.
If it relied on me to be in complete control then it would be a dead kid.

tronvillain

I voted that we are in full control of our actions, but our actions are also determined by physical law. There is no conflict: "we" make choices, but "we" are the product of physical law.