I think what @leaky is saying is that even those choices you think you have, the final selection, the final decision made is somehow still influenced by certain determinants
You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
I think what @leaky is saying is that even those choices you think you have, the final selection, the final decision made is somehow still influenced by certain determinants
Right, and I disagree with that. I believe that there is some influence but that the ultimate responsibility and the actual choice is made by the individual at least to some extent or that the potential is there to make choices regardless of the influences and everything. I believe that we all can break bad habits and addictions and lifestyles regardless of the nature versus nurture debates and the environments we may be in and everything.
those final choices you are talking about can't be considered exclusive of previous influences. When an individual faces options, the choice he makes has to be somehow influenced by an occurrence of the past, or a specific knowledge or some other influence he/she has come across at some given point in time. So in essence freewill is more like influenced will that looks like freewill just simply because it is not being directly imposed on the individual. If we consider all indirect, passive influences, we'd realise that all will is influence at some level in various ways. If an individual Can be said to be a sum total of his influences like environment, knowledge base, etc and all that contributes in shaping his psyche how then can we say his choices could be void of influences? I think not
@babysteve you have a good grasp on the idea of determinism. Very well said.
You both raise some good points though. I've posted part II of this article, if you are interested. I would like to hear more of your thoughts on the subject :)