Monday, November 20, 2023

Free Will

Modern brain research has concluded that free will is an illusion. However, it can still be very tangible if you find yourself in a grocery store with a three-year-old. She is kicking and screaming her lungs out because she is denied the chocolate cookies she wants.

It may be that the scientists are right; we don't have a will of our own, and perhaps previous events determine everything. Maybe no one should be blamed for what they have done, not even the worst war criminals. However, you don't care what they find in the scientific laboratories if you shop for groceries with a furious three-year-old. You don't live in a laboratory; you live here in the everyday dimension.  

You don't know what is happening on the sub-atomic level; You don't know which genes are activated in your body on the biological level; you don't know what the angels and demons are up to; you don't know what's going on in your subconscious mind; You know what is happening here on the mundane level. And you have to make a decision.

Determined Life without free will Robert Sapolsky