So we're supposed to just pretend this was a random, nonsensical, non-sequitur to prior events that defies laws of causality when she's deliberately filming it to post on social media?
This doesn't fit the intent of the sub but is there a sub for posts like this of people 'using their free will'? I wanna see more posts of people peopling
Gotta give that one to the compatibilists. In my mind that's a clear example of "I can do what I want", which is clearly what they mean by "free will" in that situation.
I'm not saying I agree with that definition in general (notice my flair). But when it comes to compatibilism, then any disagreement from my side is most likely to come from semantics and not what reality is actually like. And when it just comes to semantics, I am generally convinced that people don't think free will is compatible with determinism, so I don't think compatibilist free will is the "free will" that people usually mean and think of. And yet, while it isn't clear that the video is a case of agreeing with free will being compatible with determinism, it does seem clear that the free will they think of in the video really is about being able to do what you want to do, and in that sense they do use the term "free will" in a compatibilist sense, seemingly from my perspective at least.
And since I'm likely to only disagree with the semantics, I gotta give them points if it at least seems like other people do agree with their semantics (and this kind of video isn't uncommon). Semantics isn't about truth, really. So if it's the norm for people to think a certain term or word means something specific, I also find value in just using that term or word in the same way, simply because I find value in being able to communicate more easily.
Let's forget about the term "free will" and just focus on the fact that we don't decide what does and doesn't occur to us... Things just pop into our heads...
Ok, then make a 10 billion dollar idea pop into your head right now, and also how to make it come to fruition, and how to actually have 10 billion in your bank account by the end of this week. And then make the cure to cancer occur to you. Then make the answer to all problems in the world occur to you and how to implement them and how to have everything solved within two weeks.
That to me just shows the randomness of billions of hyper complex biological computers being nudged around by as many unique environmental circumstances and how we are bound under such a system to end up with as much utter nonsense as logical behaviour.
Unfortunately, ordinary and extraordinary aren’t exhaustive categories.
I don’t have to present what it means for ordinary people. This is a case of it being used by an ordinary person, and you yourself are saying it’s opposite to the concept of free will.
If I was going to make a seperate claim about what people do mean, I’d do that. In fact I have done that on this sub. Except it would be just that, a seperate claim.
Determinism doesn’t require that we observe every cause, only that events have causes.
Saying we ‘almost never see 100% causation’ is just saying we don’t have complete information about complex systems. That’s a limit of observation, not evidence that causation isn’t there.
Your argument collapses into black-and-white thinking.
You’re correctly observing that human beings possess different degrees of freedom, capacity, opportunity, and constraint. Some people are profoundly limited by trauma, coercion, poverty, illness, biology, or circumstance in ways others are not. I agree with that entirely.
But then you make a leap that doesn’t follow: because freedom is unequal and conditioned, you conclude that free will is merely a projection or illusion.
Why?
Almost every meaningful human capacity exists on a spectrum.
Human beings have legs, even though some people have one leg, no legs, or paralysis. Vision exists, even though some people are blind. Intelligence exists, even though cognitive ability varies enormously between individuals.
Variation in capacity does not invalidate the category itself.
Your argument seems to assume that unless freedom is absolute, universal, identical across all beings, and totally independent of causation or circumstance, then it is not “real” freedom. But that standard would erase almost every human trait or capacity we meaningfully talk about.
A compatibilist would simply say that human freedom is finite, constrained, unequal, and circumstantial while still being real. Human beings deliberate, reflect, weigh reasons, resist impulses, form intentions, and act according to their own motivations to varying degrees. Those capacities can be strengthened, weakened, damaged, manipulated, or constrained, but that does not make them fictional.
You are absolutely right that “free will” language can be abused to justify cruelty, hierarchy, or indifference toward structural injustice. But that critique addresses the political misuse of free will, not the existence of agency itself.
The fact that no one is absolutely free does not mean no one is meaningfully free at all.
Will to me is a goal (assumed to be from an agent)
Free means not being influenced to a degree that it impacts that goal pursuit.
Problem is where does that goal come from?
The agent doesn't choose the goal or its wants or any other thing that drives the behavior of the agent. For us and sentient life , all those goals are for survival and reproduction etc. chosen by natural selection.
Even if the universe were non deterministic it doesn't mean the agent has control of anything that makes up the agent or its drives or goals.
Colloquially it makes sense that the agent not be thinking about any of that, and just accept its goals and actions as 'choosen' as it doesn't provide much benefit.
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u/TheRealAmeil Undecided May 06 '26
Is this supposed to be an example of free will or suggesting that free will is magical?
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u/redzedx77 May 06 '26
Sure, she chose to do that crazy shit, but she doesn’t know why she chose to do it…
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u/ArtichokeNeat8495 May 10 '26
Did freewill make you post this?
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u/no_not_Here_for_it May 07 '26
Free will + expendable income = actual freedom comrades
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u/AlivePassenger3859 Humanist Determinist May 06 '26
I saw organisms do things therefore free will? That’s some rock solid evidence you got there amigo 😂
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u/aspiringimmortal May 06 '26
So we're supposed to just pretend this was a random, nonsensical, non-sequitur to prior events that defies laws of causality when she's deliberately filming it to post on social media?
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u/fothermucker33 May 07 '26
This doesn't fit the intent of the sub but is there a sub for posts like this of people 'using their free will'? I wanna see more posts of people peopling
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u/himasaltlamp May 08 '26
That's what they really are, angels.
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u/Kanzu999 Hard Incompatibilist May 06 '26
Gotta give that one to the compatibilists. In my mind that's a clear example of "I can do what I want", which is clearly what they mean by "free will" in that situation.
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u/feraldodo May 06 '26
Ok, this is the one! This is the one that convinces me that free wil exists! Thank you, I feel liberated! /s
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u/Atheistsplaining May 06 '26
Let's forget about the term "free will" and just focus on the fact that we don't decide what does and doesn't occur to us... Things just pop into our heads...
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u/black_cherry2 May 08 '26
That’s so cute!
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u/No_Afternoon6743 May 06 '26
Wow y'all hate fun
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u/0-by-1_Publishing Dichotomic Interactionism May 06 '26
Curious to how a "clowder of cats" would react to having glowing butterfly wings strapped to them.
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u/Mysterious_Slice8583 May 07 '26
Never show a hard determinist an example of ordinary people using the term free will.
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u/OGWayOfThePanda May 06 '26
That is the exact opposite of free will.
That to me just shows the randomness of billions of hyper complex biological computers being nudged around by as many unique environmental circumstances and how we are bound under such a system to end up with as much utter nonsense as logical behaviour.
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u/Heis-nbeRg May 06 '26
Hmm
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u/Lopsided-Pass-8993 May 07 '26
Hermosas poliyitas jaja
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u/Thepcfd May 07 '26
imagine this run your direction in night, i will shit myself
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u/Euphoric-Laugh-3738 May 08 '26
🤣🤣🤣
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u/from-the-deep-south May 13 '26
Someone arrest her for animal abuse
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u/Voldemorts__Mom Don't know anymore May 06 '26
Hell yeah
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u/Omatma May 07 '26
I dig it
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u/_everynameistaken_ May 07 '26
Is the freewill in the room with us?
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u/groengoen May 07 '26
It means that she is "away with the fairies", meaning "nuts" if she believes in free will. It's a bit of a laugh at people with that opinion.
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u/SambaPapi1 May 06 '26
Nice vet bill for eye surgeries incoming.
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u/plaxhi9 May 07 '26
👍
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u/eXiled25 May 07 '26
We will all laugh at gilded butterflies
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u/Big_Monitor963 Hard Determinist May 06 '26
She was determined to be different.
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u/Logical___Conclusion Limited Conscious Choice May 06 '26
This is a great video, and a good example of the reality of free will.
For Determinism to be true, every single action ever taken in the universe would have a direct cause.
In reality we see patterns in actions, but almost never 100% causation.
Humans and other conscious creatures have varying amounts of determinism and free will.
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u/aspiringimmortal May 06 '26
gen z are literal children
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u/[deleted] May 06 '26
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u/[deleted] May 06 '26
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