Episode Description:

In this episode, Kevin talks about why he believes there is no such thing as "Free Will".

To Shadow, go to 5:20.

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Outro music - by Lundstroem - "Great podcast intro" (Short version and Long version)

Transcript:

Hello everyone. Today I wanted to briefly talk about the idea of free will.  Now this is a big topic.. so that’s why I want to emphasize “briefly”.  And this isn’t going to go deeply into the theories of free will vs determinism. These are just my thoughts..

Okay, so… Free will is defined as the capacity to make choices that are genuinely one’s own. So the idea of choice is important here. 

So, when presented with a choice, for example...Do you want vanilla or chocolate ice cream.?  We have the ability to choose one or the other. 

From an objective point of view, we do have the ability to choose between one or more options. Or day to day, when we decide what we are going to do each day...or when we plan for the week, year, or more...we can make decisions, or choices, that determine the course of our life.  Even when we do not actively plan to decide, we can decide or choose as a response to an external situation, like uhhh being asked what you want to eat tonight, pizza, ramen, or sushi. 

The opposite of the Idea of free will is called determinism, which I found the definition being "the idea that all events, including human actions, are ultimately determined by causes regarded as external to the will."  Now the word to focus on in that definition is the word "will". 

Will has many definitions, but the “will” we are referring to here has two main definitions: 

So the idea of free will is to be able to freely choose one’s actions, and to control the mind. Yet, interestingly synonyms of “will” are desire and prefer.  I say interesting because it may be that our choosing of something is synonymous with our preference, or our desire, for something.

Okay, so basically, I don’t think we have free will in the way most people think we have it…like we can choose our actions. We can choose what to do, but we can’t choose the choice…if that make sense.

Or…here are some quotes from Sam Harris, a philosopher/podcaster that makes a very cogent argument for there not being free will in his book aptly named“Free Will”. Please consider these quotes and let me know your thoughts:

“You can do what you decide to do — but you cannot decide what you will decide to do.”

“Take a moment to think about the context in which your next decision will occur: You did not pick your parents or the time and place of your birth. You didn't choose your gender or most of your life experiences. You had no control whatsoever over your genome or the development of your brain. And now your brain is making choices on the basis of preferences and beliefs that have been hammered into it over a lifetime - by your genes, your physical development since the moment you were conceived, and the interactions you have had with other people, events, and ideas. Where is the freedom in this? Yes, you are free to do what you want even now. But where did your desires come from?”

“You are not controlling the storm, and you are not lost in it. You are the storm.”

“A puppet is free as long as he loves his strings.”

That’s all for today. See you next time.