I think this is a good way of presenting a potential position. Here we are in situ, where experientially it seems like we are free, but we can also see ourselves affected by things and even notice that some ‘choices’ or choices seem automatic, even compulsive (a word with the same root as compelled.)
I cannot imagine nailing down a solution (that would convince all rational people, for example) as far as determinims vs. free will. Nor can I see, actually, what good it would do. So for me it is not an important issue.
I have my day ahead of me. I have to make a job related call that might give me some work I would like to have. Fortunately it is not a fully cold call. My way of thinking about this call is a muddle of thinking based on causation - I know they don’t have a lot of money right now and this will likely make them stingy - and me mulling over my options with an implicit belief in free will somewhere in there - as if several futures are possible, as if might go a number of different ways on the phone. I don’t need to make a decision about free will or determinism. I have a bunch of heuristics, just like everyone else, some would seem to indicate I am free - me planning my different options to different questions or obstacles I might meet in the phone call - and some that things are determined - especially when thinking about the callee.
Peacegirl thinks I will be a better person if I believe in determinism. I truly doubt that. I can see it helping on some issues, but also hurting on others. I think a consistant, all the time believing in determinism, will dehumanize. Obviously that doesn’t mean it is incorrect, in fact my concerns are about the believe causing certain negative effects. That the future is bascially laid out already I think will be depressing. Perhap it ‘should’ not be. But humans have tendencies to feel in ways that are not necessarily logical. We are life forms nnot pocket calculators. Some people believe that we will be nicer to criminals once we no longer view their choices as choices. I think the precise opposite effect could take place once we view them as broken machines or creatures with problematic chemical machines in their brains. Once we are seen as, essentially, robots or complicated ‘things’…wait that is often the way we are viewed today by governments,corporations and the pharmaceutial industry. Well, there’s a downside to that.
Perhaps there are good reasons most people more or less black box the issue and if we followed their thinking we would find a muddle of both models chugging along. (note: many of them claim that they believe in free will or deteminism, but I think if we watched their language and investigated their thinking, we would find that in fact they move between the two).
If someone can demonstrate that it is important for us to work it out finally AND can at least make it seem remotely possible, especially for us here, to work it out. OK, maybe then I’ll prioritize working out the solution to it. I suppose I’d be flattered they thought so highly of me ( and then also they think very highly of themselves).