The speed you’ll drive is the product of innumerable in-born and external influences (which include past experience). Laws would be useless if people had free will, actually. They work because of a deterrent effect; getting pulled over paying fines, and maybe going to jail feels bad. It’s the threat of feeling bad that makes laws an effective incentive, and we can’t change that emotional response.
If humans had free will, though, we could decide how we emotionally react to anything. We could decide to flip a switch in our minds so that jail is emotionally fulfilling and preferable to freedom. Then there’d be no way to punish anybody, and thus we could have no laws.
If humans had free will, though, we could decide how we emotionally react to anything. We could decide to flip a switch in our minds
Exactly! ❤️ That’s the trap that sadly keeps a person locked in his mind. The slave’s curse. And I’m sorry it’s happening to you. I’ve been there before, as well.
Know that you are more than the sum of your environment and history, good or bad. You can decide to do something, just because you like doing it. You might not even remember what you like doing. It can take a while to find out, but you’ll find it. And from there it will grow.
You’re thinking of a fatalistic universe, where the future is predetermined, rather than a deterministic one, where every action follows from a prior cause. It’s not that you choose to follow the speed limit out of free will - you simply don’t want to get into trouble, so you’re compelled to obey it. But even that want isn’t something you chose.
I figured out recently from Lemmy discussions that people have different concepts of what free will means. Humorously, one of them operates within a deterministic mindset, while the other points out the determinism.
Best analogy that I can think of at the moment is the difference between a drill press and a 4-axis CNC mill. The drill press has one degree of freedom, down and up. It’s locked in. The mill has 4 degrees of freedom, and it can run code that makes its behavior highly complex. For some people, that’s good enough: The mill has free will while the drill press does not.
The view of free will that recognizes determinism says that humans have innumerable degrees of freedom, so our behavior looks complex, but our conscious choice is just the various competing influences shaking out.
How? People are automatons programmed by laws? How are the laws made?
If you know that driving over a certain speed limit will increase your chance of getting a ticket, then you’re less likely to do so.
You can’t because you’ve no free will. Regardless of the law, the speed you’ll drive is the speed you’ll drive, no?
The speed you’ll drive is the product of innumerable in-born and external influences (which include past experience). Laws would be useless if people had free will, actually. They work because of a deterrent effect; getting pulled over paying fines, and maybe going to jail feels bad. It’s the threat of feeling bad that makes laws an effective incentive, and we can’t change that emotional response.
If humans had free will, though, we could decide how we emotionally react to anything. We could decide to flip a switch in our minds so that jail is emotionally fulfilling and preferable to freedom. Then there’d be no way to punish anybody, and thus we could have no laws.
Exactly! ❤️ That’s the trap that sadly keeps a person locked in his mind. The slave’s curse. And I’m sorry it’s happening to you. I’ve been there before, as well.
Know that you are more than the sum of your environment and history, good or bad. You can decide to do something, just because you like doing it. You might not even remember what you like doing. It can take a while to find out, but you’ll find it. And from there it will grow.
You’re not trapped, just hurt. 🌸
Can you decide that you’ll enjoy cutting off one of your fingers? If so, it seems silly not to, since you’ll enjoy it!
Sadly you can, and it happens. What also happens is harming others because of one’s own pain :( . I know as both victim and perpetrator.
Luckily you can try other things first! 🎵
No, I mean you, right now, with your free will.
Luckily I have free will. I don’t need to do what you tell me to do! I get to decide myself.
And so do you: you can decide what you want to do ❤️
You’re thinking of a fatalistic universe, where the future is predetermined, rather than a deterministic one, where every action follows from a prior cause. It’s not that you choose to follow the speed limit out of free will - you simply don’t want to get into trouble, so you’re compelled to obey it. But even that want isn’t something you chose.
I figured out recently from Lemmy discussions that people have different concepts of what free will means. Humorously, one of them operates within a deterministic mindset, while the other points out the determinism.
Best analogy that I can think of at the moment is the difference between a drill press and a 4-axis CNC mill. The drill press has one degree of freedom, down and up. It’s locked in. The mill has 4 degrees of freedom, and it can run code that makes its behavior highly complex. For some people, that’s good enough: The mill has free will while the drill press does not.
The view of free will that recognizes determinism says that humans have innumerable degrees of freedom, so our behavior looks complex, but our conscious choice is just the various competing influences shaking out.
Why’s that?
The same reason you don’t want to keep your hand on a hot stove. It’s uncomfortable.
Exactly, we tend to fear uncomfortable things, no?
We’re scared thus avoid, and avoid, and avoid, untill we feel trapped.
Each day starts to feel the same. Each holliday too, even. Nowhere to escape to. Mind racing.