Thread: Free Will.
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Old 11-07-2005, 06:26 PM
RustedCorpse RustedCorpse is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: NYC
Posts: 74
Default Free Will.

Ok I rarely post in this forum but my roomate and I are having a talk and in the process of playing the devil's advocate I kinda convinced myself I was actually right. In short my roomate was arguing that free will exists allows us various things. My argument to him is that free will doesn't exist.

My opinion (not whole heartedly believed) was how would I ever really know if I have free will? I mean doctor's have shown certain parts of the brain become active when certain TYPES of desicions are made. Furthermore wouldn't any free will really just be the sum of all my experiences? Also what about when things like drugs are invovled? When I'm drunk/high/tripping aren't I going to tend to make different decisions then when sober? Why? Can it be "free will" if a chemical state affects it? I would think the fact that states of mind affecting choices would be more a matter of cause and effect thus giving the perception of choice.

I'm curious what is the standard argument on this? How would you ever know if what you're doing is "free will" or a chemical result of your brain's thinking process?

any books on this would be welcome.
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