Indeterminism/chaos/randomness would be the worst, because there'd be no way to know the results of your actions. Instead of thinking "I want coffee" and then preparing to make coffee, in a randomness world, you might think "I want coffee", but then start doing backflips, and whistles, or some other completely bizarre action, that's completely disconnected and random... Because, everything would be completely random... So that doesn't give us free will. Second, I'm a hard determinist. As you mentioned: we didn't pick which brain we'd have, body, looks, DNA, intelligence, parents, grandparents, inherited mental health, physical health, the way our parents treated us. There was a woman who was locked up in the basement for like 30 years by her father... Definitely an example that proves that everything comes down to luck, because you and everyone that isn't her is lucky they weren't born her, or someone that experienced something equivalent or worse... There are many such examples that prove that everything is a matter of luck, even if "free will" were real. I like to simply avoid using the term "free will" and explain that everything we do, and think has a prior explanation. I might _want_ ice cream, but if I want to be healthy even more than I want the ice cream, then that want will trump the ice cream want. But if in that moment, my desire for that ice cream trump's my desire to be healthy, well then, it wins out... Most likely because the thought occurs "I'll just make it this one time and won't make it a habit"... Either way, one want will win, and if you keep tracing the wants back further and further, you'll always find that they come from something that's not in our control. For one, we don't come up with what our wants are. This is something Schopenhauer pointed out long ago. Wants simply emerge - mostly from biology programming... Such as who we're attracted to. Which foods we find good/bad, etc, etc. For you to decide which wants you'd have, you'd have to want to select one want over another... And the same goes for the want that causes you to select one want over the other, ad infinitum. I buy bananas because I like their taste. I like their taste for reasons I don't know... "They taste good" to me, for biological reasons, that I didn't cause. Every thought we have is constructed by processes that occur unconsciously. If it were up to me to author my thoughts, then I'd have to have those thoughts prior to authoring them, in order to base the thoughts I'd like to create on something... But that's not how it goes. Thoughts simply pop out of the unconscious into the conscious. Otherwise, everyone with great ideas would have decided to have the great idea occur much much sooner in their lives - perhaps while a young child - as to skip all the years of being poor, or whatever they had to endure before becoming wealthy. Think back to anytime you misplaced your keys or something you wanted to immediately have in your hand, but weren't able to instantly recall where you put it... You were at the mercy of your memory. Just imagine if you simply _never_ recalled where you put your keys, and it took days or weeks until you by chance recovered them... The havoc that would cause you. We ask ourselves "where did I put them??" Begging our processes to give us the answer. The same goes for forgetting names, or anything else. Sure, we "make choices"... But "choice" is just a word that's applied to the event of a brain settling on something. But again, those choices are determined by biological needs for which we didn't get to decide. If it were up to me I'd do away with my desire for a girlfriend, and do away with my knowledge of mortality, and anything else that causes me discontent or worry, etc. Have you read Sam Harris's book "Free Will"? I highly recommend it. I personally agree that the argument has been finished, and determinism is fact... And, I say that anyone denying it is simply wrong. If we pay close attention to our thoughts and actions and really keep asking "why did I do that?", We'll see that determinism is undeniable, and the idea of contra-causal choices/thoughts/actions, is completely absurd.
My answers to the questions: Q1) Do you want to be free? A1) Free from what? There are some ways that I might want to be free, but there are some ways that I would not want to be free (e.g. free to make a mistake that might cost someone else their life). Q2) Would you want a genetic engineer to restructure your brain so that you would only make decisions that led to your ultimate achievement of your desires? A2) No, but only because some of my current desires are probably harmful and stupid. My desires change over time as I mature and only in retrospect do I see how terrible some of them were. If the brain engineer could make it so that I desired the ultimate good and only made decisions that led to that good, then I would want the procedure. Q3) Would you want a social engineer to orchestrate your life starting from birth to inundate you with external stimuli that would change your behavior so that you would always make the decisions that would actualize your desires? A3) No, but for the same reason I gave for the previous answer. I don't think it is necessarily good to actualize all of our desires. In fact, we often exert willpower to refrain from indulging in some of our desires. However if the social engineer would make me desire the right things first, then, yes, sign me up.
In regards to the first answer, some would see free will almost as a curse. You can make choices that are horrific. Good point on the next couple of questions. You'd have to have perfect second order desires
@@ChicoThePhilosurfer That is a good way to put it. I think giving beings as morally and epistemically flawed as human beings free will is a recipe for disaster. Just look at the Bible story. Human free will amounts to nothing more than the opportunity to miss out on paradise and curse ourselves (and our descendants) due to weakness and/or ignorance.
I’m excited for this, thanks!
Indeterminism/chaos/randomness would be the worst, because there'd be no way to know the results of your actions. Instead of thinking "I want coffee" and then preparing to make coffee, in a randomness world, you might think "I want coffee", but then start doing backflips, and whistles, or some other completely bizarre action, that's completely disconnected and random... Because, everything would be completely random... So that doesn't give us free will.
Second, I'm a hard determinist. As you mentioned: we didn't pick which brain we'd have, body, looks, DNA, intelligence, parents, grandparents, inherited mental health, physical health, the way our parents treated us. There was a woman who was locked up in the basement for like 30 years by her father... Definitely an example that proves that everything comes down to luck, because you and everyone that isn't her is lucky they weren't born her, or someone that experienced something equivalent or worse... There are many such examples that prove that everything is a matter of luck, even if "free will" were real.
I like to simply avoid using the term "free will" and explain that everything we do, and think has a prior explanation. I might _want_ ice cream, but if I want to be healthy even more than I want the ice cream, then that want will trump the ice cream want. But if in that moment, my desire for that ice cream trump's my desire to be healthy, well then, it wins out... Most likely because the thought occurs "I'll just make it this one time and won't make it a habit"... Either way, one want will win, and if you keep tracing the wants back further and further, you'll always find that they come from something that's not in our control.
For one, we don't come up with what our wants are. This is something Schopenhauer pointed out long ago. Wants simply emerge - mostly from biology programming... Such as who we're attracted to. Which foods we find good/bad, etc, etc.
For you to decide which wants you'd have, you'd have to want to select one want over another... And the same goes for the want that causes you to select one want over the other, ad infinitum.
I buy bananas because I like their taste. I like their taste for reasons I don't know... "They taste good" to me, for biological reasons, that I didn't cause.
Every thought we have is constructed by processes that occur unconsciously. If it were up to me to author my thoughts, then I'd have to have those thoughts prior to authoring them, in order to base the thoughts I'd like to create on something... But that's not how it goes. Thoughts simply pop out of the unconscious into the conscious. Otherwise, everyone with great ideas would have decided to have the great idea occur much much sooner in their lives - perhaps while a young child - as to skip all the years of being poor, or whatever they had to endure before becoming wealthy.
Think back to anytime you misplaced your keys or something you wanted to immediately have in your hand, but weren't able to instantly recall where you put it... You were at the mercy of your memory. Just imagine if you simply _never_ recalled where you put your keys, and it took days or weeks until you by chance recovered them... The havoc that would cause you. We ask ourselves "where did I put them??" Begging our processes to give us the answer. The same goes for forgetting names, or anything else.
Sure, we "make choices"... But "choice" is just a word that's applied to the event of a brain settling on something. But again, those choices are determined by biological needs for which we didn't get to decide. If it were up to me I'd do away with my desire for a girlfriend, and do away with my knowledge of mortality, and anything else that causes me discontent or worry, etc.
Have you read Sam Harris's book "Free Will"? I highly recommend it. I personally agree that the argument has been finished, and determinism is fact... And, I say that anyone denying it is simply wrong.
If we pay close attention to our thoughts and actions and really keep asking "why did I do that?", We'll see that determinism is undeniable, and the idea of contra-causal choices/thoughts/actions, is completely absurd.
Love your content , man!
Thanks so much!
My answers to the questions:
Q1) Do you want to be free?
A1) Free from what? There are some ways that I might want to be free, but there are some ways that I would not want to be free (e.g. free to make a mistake that might cost someone else their life).
Q2) Would you want a genetic engineer to restructure your brain so that you would only make decisions that led to your ultimate achievement of your desires?
A2) No, but only because some of my current desires are probably harmful and stupid. My desires change over time as I mature and only in retrospect do I see how terrible some of them were. If the brain engineer could make it so that I desired the ultimate good and only made decisions that led to that good, then I would want the procedure.
Q3) Would you want a social engineer to orchestrate your life starting from birth to inundate you with external stimuli that would change your behavior so that you would always make the decisions that would actualize your desires?
A3) No, but for the same reason I gave for the previous answer. I don't think it is necessarily good to actualize all of our desires. In fact, we often exert willpower to refrain from indulging in some of our desires. However if the social engineer would make me desire the right things first, then, yes, sign me up.
In regards to the first answer, some would see free will almost as a curse. You can make choices that are horrific.
Good point on the next couple of questions. You'd have to have perfect second order desires
@@ChicoThePhilosurfer That is a good way to put it. I think giving beings as morally and epistemically flawed as human beings free will is a recipe for disaster. Just look at the Bible story. Human free will amounts to nothing more than the opportunity to miss out on paradise and curse ourselves (and our descendants) due to weakness and/or ignorance.