If there is no randomness in particle motion
and interaction, then can thoughts be predicted and do we have no free will? If there is randomness, do our thoughts
have no meaning and are they just as random as their cause? If there is randomness, can our larger
brains have control over smaller random interactions and create meaning?
...Do people have
free will?
Some clarification:
The question may be better put "Do we have
free choice," as "will" implies a certain order of the desire to
some philosophers (especially Harry Frankfurt, who is my source for the term). However, a lack of free choice
necessitates a lack of free will (or a lack of free "free will"). If you cannot choose anything, then
your highest order desire is still forced and you cannot freely
"will" anything. So I
will not concern myself with the distinction, and we should progress using the
word "will," since this is how the question is commonly phrased.
Or, maybe it should be called “free
thought.” And,
indeed, if we do not have free thought, we cannot have free choice or free will of any order...
Some thoughts:
ReplyDeleteIf our brain follows a predetermined path, then we cannot choose what to do. If we would do the something every time we were put in the same scenario, they we can have no say in the matter. We cannot control our "thoughts," and so cannot "will" anything to happen.
And true randomness in our brain is no better than the computer having to follow a predetermined path, for the results of the are not determined by our own volition. So, either we could only have acted the way it did, or we could have acted otherwise but had no choice in the matter.
These arguments demonstrate an absence of free will in its entirety, wherever it may be found, as all things (whether living beings or computers) exist in this universe and are composed of particles. (But it is far easier to disprove the free will of computers, for all of these arguments, which are based on mysterious particles, apply to the easily conceptualized macrostructures of computers. And, it is already assumed, or rather known, that they follow a deterministic path; this does not have to be proven.)