What about free to? — Noble Dust
"Free of" is negative; "free to" is positive. "Free" is by nature a positive concept. — Noble Dust
No, it's not my preference that "free of" is negative and "free to" is positive; it's just grammatically correct. — Noble Dust
Will come back later, sorry. — god must be atheist
1. Free will, if a causal explanation is what's required to understand it, can't be understood
2. We need, perhaps there's that person out there with an IQ that's off the charts, a new species of explanations, acausal explanations — TheMadFool
Of your own free will, presumably. Not because anything made you come back. — Wayfarer
1. The mutually contradictory nature of humanity, treated as a super-organism, means that opposing, antagonistic likes or dislikes cancel each other and what we're left with is an entity that has no preferences and thus must, in that sense, be free
2. Humanity, again as a whole, a super-organism, being capable of having preferences that are opposite in quality must mean that it's free for none of these preferences seem to exert a dominating influence, which if false would've meant that humanity is just another, though bigger, version of the individual with predelictions that it can't resist or counter but must be slaves to. — TheMadFool
If you can't figure out on your own any causal explanations to guide my will to do this, then there is no way anyone else can explain it to you, either. — god must be atheist
You will continue to believe as those unconscious determinants dictate, regardless of anything that could be said; — Wayfarer
You'd be right except that conscious, emotional and rational influences also affect free will, — god must be atheist
Many discussions here enticed me to new thoughts, to new insights. — god must be atheist
But that is not an argument AGAINST free will. If your will is determined by conscious, emotional and rational influences, then your decisions are freely chosen. — Wayfarer
If your will is determined by conscious, emotional and rational influences, then your decisions are freely chosen. — Wayfarer
It was simply posted to help you to realize that rational thoght also influences the will, free or not. You specifically denied that in your post, so that's why this part in my post. — god must be atheist
If your will is determined by conscious, emotional and rational influences, then your decisions are freely chosen. — Wayfarer
I propose it is that part of me which is my will that determines my wilful choices. — god must be atheist
the human body is made to dictate appealing from unappealing regardless of your will in a way which influences your will and really, often simply constitutes your will. — Judaka
Firstly, this is expressed as both the individual wanting and not wanting to smoke, we cannot express their desire to smoke as not being part of their will. — Judaka
My inability to cleanse my will of external influences poses the greatest threat to my free will, which is actually inherently not free at all by its very nature. — Judaka
I can easily decide to hold my arm out in front of me but it's much harder to hold it out until I stop due to physical limitations rather than "wanting to stop". — Judaka
Which is not necessarily a contradiction at all, as long as such an influence is not perceived as such. One is as free as can be until there is something which is actively perceived as limiting ones freedom. — Heiko
Of course, we can. The person gives a declaration of intent and that's it. One could even say that it is a demonstration of free will to be even able to want something different than what one is doing or what actually is the case. — Heiko
Do you feel it that way? Then maybe you are just told it was your free decision — Heiko
Are you asking that you "want to want something" now? — Heiko
I think the body's influence on the will constitutes an outside influence, the question is how greatly can you be influenced before you are more of a puppet to those influences than an actor with free will. There should be a point where the individual acting in accordance with those influences to a degree where it is reasonable to doubt the ability of the individual to go against those influences. Also, I don't think perception can be trusted to bring clarity to this matter. — Judaka
There is no "desire" not to smoke and cannot be as that is a negation. There may be a desire to smoke and a rational decision to stop smoking to feel more healthy or whatever.Well, what you've described is not what I meant, the desire to smoke and the desire not to smoke both enter the consciousness and that's how that works. — Judaka
Which pretty much brings it to the point: "I don't want that" is not a rational end, hence never a direct maxime of free will. It serves another purpose.The whole problem here is that merely characterising your will as "what I want" and "what I don't want" is not the same as "I don't want that" but you do, that's the whole difficulty of exercising your will. — Judaka
SoMerely going with all of your psychobiological proclivities isn't freedom, that's just being taken along for the ride without trying to resist. — Judaka
Are you talking of power now? There may be external and internal resistances and your problem is you lack the power to execute your will. So what does the rational individual necessarily have to do? Go see a doctor, buy weapons or question your decision.I was saying that you can decide you want something but the growing pressure to do the opposite builds up until you eventually or quite possibly almost immediately capitulate. — Judaka
Then either you are lacking power or your abstract reasoning is wrong in that you only whish you wanted to do it...Like deciding you will do something bold until it comes time to do that thing and you're immediately overcome by fear which causes you to change your mind. — Judaka
If they really did there would not a problem. This is where the circle closes: You either want or do not. The rest is a question of power.Thus your emotions influence your will — Judaka
The question remains if bodily limitations are perceived as such — Heiko
There is no "desire" not to smoke and cannot be as that is a negation — Heiko
We are not in the middle ages. — Heiko
Then either you are lacking power or your abstract reasoning is wrong in that you only whish you wanted to do it — Heiko
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