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originally posted in:Psykana Librarius
4/4/2015 6:01:33 PM
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[Discussion Thread] Free Will

I believe free will exists

147

I do not believe free will exists

29

Do you believe that humans have free will? This debate is long standing, and has huge ethical implications. I am making this post to collect arguments on both sides of the debate. Please vote, and then answer these questions: [quote]Why do you think your choice is correct?[/quote] [quote]What are the implications of the opposition being correct?[/quote] [i]Please be calm and respectful in this thread, I encourage discussion, and disagreement is fine, but keep it civil. [/i]

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  • Yes*. *I believe in causality. This implies there is no form of external control over the "decisions" made by humans, be it pre-ordained destiny or space magic. That said, our decisions are largely a result of chemicals, determining what actions to take. Philosophy kicks in at that point, requiring one to define if the involvement of these chemicals constitute a portion of the decision, like gasoline being a part of a car, or are they a form of external influence on the biological machine of our super- and sub-conscience. I don't wish to really spend much time defining that, but I will leave with an interesting point. Recently listened to an episode of Radiolab in which they took brain scans of people as they were asked questions of extreme moral dilemma ('could you kill your child if it would save a village' sort of scenarios). Those able to provide an affirmative answer had some interesting results: the parts of the brain dealing with instinct and 'conscious' choice were lighting up in equal portions, suggesting a moral conflict...until two small lobes right behind the eyes, parts of the frontal cortex responsible for our humanistic consciousness, lit up and "squelched" the instinct portions, reducing the activity in the brain in those regions. Found that to be amazing.

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