Below is a 9-minute video that encapsulates Sam Harris' views about free will.
Which, in short, is that it is an illusion. And that the world would be better off if people recognized this, rather than wrongly believing that humans are able to freely choose what to do at any given moment.
The background music in the video is a bit distracting. But Harris' message is so convincing, and the video is so well done (aside, perhaps, from the music selection), I urge you to watch it.
Now, I realize that some people don't look upon free will in the way that Harris does.
Harris, like me, considers that free will means just that: we are free to will what we want to do. This is how the legal system looks upon free will. It also is how virtually everybody who believes in free will looks upon it: as the capacity to do this rather than that.
The alternative view of free will makes little, if any, sense. Namely, that while we are not free to choose what we will, if there is nothing constraining us from carrying out that determined choice, then we have "free will."
Well, this viewpoint simply means that humans have as much free will as a well-functioning computer does. Absent software or hardware problems, a computer is able to carry out the tasks that it has been programmed to do. But does this mean it has free will?
No. Likewise, Harris says that because we live in a deterministic universe, human actions also are determined by all of the influences acting upon us from birth onward (even before birth, of course, given genetic influences).
If you watch the video and find flaws in Harris' arguments, please leave a comment explaining what you think he got wrong. Like I said, I find the video highly convincing, but I'm open to hearing reasons why free will isn't an illusion. So far, I just haven't come across any convincing ones.
Sam Harris - Free Will from The Inspiration Journey on Vimeo.
Hopefully the video will be reissued with the background music toned down a lot, it's far too loud and distracting. I gave up after a few minutes straining to catch what Sam Harris was saying.
Posted by: Martin | July 19, 2016 at 10:09 AM
Love this!
Being aligned is the answer.
love and compassion talents..etc..
Posted by: s* | July 21, 2016 at 07:29 AM
It is very deep idd..
One cannot will what one will..
Where do we come from?
Where do we go?
What do we really know from deeply..,about ourselves?
That all makes sense in the ''no free will'' idea..feeling..knowing.
Posted by: s* | July 21, 2016 at 01:12 PM
Any option of free will would have to be pure speculation, and would probably require consciousness to certainly be a phenomenon of the brain. Then, there are some options (which still are mostly irrelevant to our daily lives).
This all could be a computer game (rather than just a simulation), and in that sense "we" have free will, that "something" with perhaps free will would be deciding to play us.
This all could be a hologram, and the real us, with true free will, does exist somewhere else, and this is its projection.
There could be a "soul" outside our reality, which makes decisions and that manifests in our existence.
And possibly many other theories.
All of them are utterly pointless unfortunately. :)
Posted by: Robb | August 12, 2016 at 06:04 PM