INTP memes I saved on my phone to enjoy year 2021 | Part 19

Do we have free will?
One thing I am quite sure about is that if I were to give credit to myself as a thinking human being, then I have to presuppose free will exists. No free will means no free thought. If everything is beyond our control and we are merely spectators of events or thoughts unfolding, then that means no one cannot rationally justify any thought or action since no one thought up any thought. There is no conscious agency that has any causal effect or choice on anything that unfolds.
No free will means no culpability and no praise. We are all dancing to the music of our genes. That means whether you're a humanist, a mass murderer, a genius, an atheist, a theist, a fool, a nutjob, a religious freak -- you cannot be blamed and you cannot be commended. In fact, there is no you, just a collection of atoms forming the illusion of self.
I won't go too far. One very practical example: No free will means all upvotes or downvotes in Quora are meaningless since upvoting/downvoting is a form of reward and punishment. Since whatever anyone has written are just atoms bumping into each other causing one to write in such manner and there is no personhood to account for, who is the one getting the upvote or downvote? No one. Actually, there is no basis for upvotes and downvotes at all since even the act of upvoting or downvoting are determined by the arbitrary whim of outside forces and no one is doing any thinking or rationalization as to why a post deserves an upvote/downvote. Remember, you're just a spectator -- everything is being done for you by some other force. You are not free to have done or thought anything other than what you're currently thinking or doing. Arguments and debates are practically meaningless. There's no such thing as reasoning out. It's like watching a basketball game and blaming the spectators for the result or outcome of the game. It doesn't make sense.
Actually, it's practically impossible to argue with anyone who thinks free will doesn't exist. Who are they arguing with? If I give a give an illogical answer, there is no me to blame. If they give a logical answer, there is no them to be praised. Everything is just atoms in motion. We can't have free thoughts just as Saturn cannot just stop and take a break from orbiting around the Sun.
So before you argue for determinism, think about what you're actually saying -- if determinism is true, then you are determined to have that thought in your head. If you are determined to have such thought in your head, then in no way can that thought be rationally justified to be true. There is no way to independently check its validity. Remember, you are not free or independent from the all the causal preconditions starting from the Big Bang. Just as a rock falls back to earth due to gravity, your thought is what it is due to physical laws acting on it. You cannot have thought otherwise. Hence, arguing is just a big farce. Freethinking is a big farce too. Real knowledge is an impossibility.
(Of course, I don't think anyone actually believes determinism is true. If a determinist starts to argue with you, he assumes freedom of thought. If he expects you to be convinced of his argument, he assumes you have freedom of thought. A true determinist, if he really believes in determinism, will just keep silent since in such a worldview, arguing is futile. A determinist who argues for determinism is just being internally inconsistent.)



-- Quora https://www.quora.com/Do-we-have-free...






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