Free Will-debate settled
Posted: Sun May 19, 2019 4:35 pm
It's obviously an almost infinite discussion on this topic, determinism vs. free will.
Alot of those discussing this topic don't even know basic physics and basic logic, so I'll start by explaining the definitions in layman terms first, then move on to the discussion:
DETERMINISM is about how everything in the universe is determined since the big bang. Not by some deity (God), but simply through the process of cause-and-effect. Say you flip a coin. Whether it is head or tail is determined by the way your fingers affected the coin, the gravitational pull from the Earth and many, many other things involved. It makes the resulting head/tail seem "unpredictable", but according to determinism, if you know all the cause-and-effects you can pre-determine if the coin is head or tail.
Now, this view of the world is known as CLASSICAL PHYSICS. Quantum Mechanics have a different approach, in that everything on the tiny scales behaves as probabilities, true probabilities. You cannot possible know the properties of position and momentum of any given quantum particle simultanously by 100 % certainty. You can know one of the properties (ie. position) by 100 % certainty, but then then the momentum will be very uncertain. It is known as Heisenbergs Uncertainty Principle.
This view however, is doubted by those adhering to other equally valid theories of quantum physics. For example you have the de-Broglie Bohm Pilot Wave theory stating that the universe behaves predictably in Pilot Waves. It is a very complicated and advanced field of physics, but in the discussion of topics like determinism, the conclusion we can draw is that we are incapable of knowing everything because of lack of equipment/mathematics, but the world is nonetheless deterministic, even if we - humans - cannot predict it.
Now, FREE WILL is the notion that any human (or even animals) have a WILL that is FREE. What exactly is meant by that? Freedom is when you determine your will yourself, but this makes no sense at all. Your mind is what you might think creates your decisions. But the mind is a result of the brain that is made by neurons sending and receiving neuro-chemical and electrical signals/impulses.
Those signals behave like, well particles bumping into each other in a pre-dermined way. The environment plays a role of course. For example your eyes receive photons which affects the brain center responsible for vision, which affects the entire system. But the universe - as a whole, by all the factors involved from environment to the inner workings of organs to just about everything, is determined since the beginning of the universe.
Even if we accept the Uncertainty Principle of Quantum Mechanics, there is no way for a free will either. It's just that the will isn't dermined since big bang, but is more chaotic and unpredictable, but the workings of your brain is nonetheless the same in that it reacts to the cause-and-effect process.
You do have a will. You do WANT to make a DECISION. But whatever you "want" or whatever your "will" is, it is not free. It can't be, for logical reasons.
Morality and the judicial system relies on the free will to be real. But physics don't care about the judicial system or morality.
Facts are facts, even when you don't like them.
Alot of those discussing this topic don't even know basic physics and basic logic, so I'll start by explaining the definitions in layman terms first, then move on to the discussion:
DETERMINISM is about how everything in the universe is determined since the big bang. Not by some deity (God), but simply through the process of cause-and-effect. Say you flip a coin. Whether it is head or tail is determined by the way your fingers affected the coin, the gravitational pull from the Earth and many, many other things involved. It makes the resulting head/tail seem "unpredictable", but according to determinism, if you know all the cause-and-effects you can pre-determine if the coin is head or tail.
Now, this view of the world is known as CLASSICAL PHYSICS. Quantum Mechanics have a different approach, in that everything on the tiny scales behaves as probabilities, true probabilities. You cannot possible know the properties of position and momentum of any given quantum particle simultanously by 100 % certainty. You can know one of the properties (ie. position) by 100 % certainty, but then then the momentum will be very uncertain. It is known as Heisenbergs Uncertainty Principle.
This view however, is doubted by those adhering to other equally valid theories of quantum physics. For example you have the de-Broglie Bohm Pilot Wave theory stating that the universe behaves predictably in Pilot Waves. It is a very complicated and advanced field of physics, but in the discussion of topics like determinism, the conclusion we can draw is that we are incapable of knowing everything because of lack of equipment/mathematics, but the world is nonetheless deterministic, even if we - humans - cannot predict it.
Now, FREE WILL is the notion that any human (or even animals) have a WILL that is FREE. What exactly is meant by that? Freedom is when you determine your will yourself, but this makes no sense at all. Your mind is what you might think creates your decisions. But the mind is a result of the brain that is made by neurons sending and receiving neuro-chemical and electrical signals/impulses.
Those signals behave like, well particles bumping into each other in a pre-dermined way. The environment plays a role of course. For example your eyes receive photons which affects the brain center responsible for vision, which affects the entire system. But the universe - as a whole, by all the factors involved from environment to the inner workings of organs to just about everything, is determined since the beginning of the universe.
Even if we accept the Uncertainty Principle of Quantum Mechanics, there is no way for a free will either. It's just that the will isn't dermined since big bang, but is more chaotic and unpredictable, but the workings of your brain is nonetheless the same in that it reacts to the cause-and-effect process.
You do have a will. You do WANT to make a DECISION. But whatever you "want" or whatever your "will" is, it is not free. It can't be, for logical reasons.
Morality and the judicial system relies on the free will to be real. But physics don't care about the judicial system or morality.
Facts are facts, even when you don't like them.