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comment by caelum19
caelum19  ·  3353 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Do you believe in free will?

I also think it's possible only I have free will(IIRC it's called Solipsism?). What do you think of other humans/animals and their free will?

    Why don't more people cave to impulse?

I think this is equally for and against free will. People always seem to act the way evolution programmed them, or by a not-always-helpful byproduct of how evolution programmed them(Evolution is such a bad programmer).

Evolutionarily speaking, which is better:

1)To act on impulse, even though you'd suffer in the end

2)No impulsive thoughts at all

3)To consider acting on impulse, and the future implications

With the situation you described, I believe #3 is the path your brain took, and that evolution is to thank. You could keep driving if you chose to do so, but you won't chose to do so.





hyperflare  ·  3351 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah, Solipsism is the belief you're the only (verifiably) conscious person in existence. Basically skepticism on drugs.

I do consider impulses part of the person, though. Like, I have the impulse to smoke a cigarette, but I can choose to resist that or not. That impulse is a part of me, though, that has causes in decisions I made in the past.

And that's basically my stance on that question: Free Will exists because the decisions I make are per definition mine - I am the brain that made that decision. I don't make choices because something outside me compels me to, I make them because I weigh the consequences.

Also, god yes, get your shit together evolution smh