Determinism and Will

First, perhaps, I should introduce myself! My name is Theo, I am 16 years old and from the west coast of USA.

I know theres already a post about free will, but it's dragged on for a while, and the question of the post is not exactly the one I'd like to answer. Moreso, I'd appreciate critique of this point of view. Every once in a while I enjoy thinking, it's really only a part time hobby . As of late, I've been thinking about free will. And well, I don't see how it's logically possible. However, thats what you bright minds are here for, to show me the holes in my thought process and perhaps show me some directions I am currently unaware of! And please, if you take the time to respond, I'd really appreciate if you took the time to read this entire post.


How can there be a logical theory that allows free will? Even if there are metaphysical forces at play, I can't imagine that they themselves are not determined by cause and effect. And, in the unlikely case that they are not controlled by cause and effect, then you have a massive series of causeless effects. I.E. Even if, for example, our consciousness and thought process somehow was not fully subject to cause and effect, then we're victims of absolutely random thoughts and events. Things that have no origin, and thus we have no control over them.

I challenge you this: Think of something totally irrelevant. Right now. If you have free will, do this.

Now, some of you may have ended up in a very bizarre place, perhaps your Aunt, or a certain bicycle shade. Although it is irrelevant to the situation, it is not irrelevant to you, or the experience. Perhaps when I said that question, the word irrelevant reminded you of the first time you heard it said, and then the person who said that, then your memories of that person, then memories tied to that person, and so on. Or, perhaps you subconsciously picked up in a change of light, and your consciousness reminded you of another time that happened, then so on. The point is, that thoughts are *given* to you. You are not a "thing" that retrieves them. In fact, in many ways, you are an illusion of yourself.

Now, perhaps you were a little bit trickier. Lets say, you, being the zen master that you are, sat on your meditation cushion and completely cleared your head of thoughts. Then, out of nowhere, with absolutely no apparent cause, you think of a teapot (or whatever you did think of).

First off, the decision to meditate and clear your mind had to be absolutely relevant, and thus anything that is a product of it is relevant. Second off, there are two possible reasons, that I can personally conceive of, that would make you think of the teapot.

A. For some reason it was relevant. Perhaps you unknowingly had a physical twitch that brought up the thought of teapots. Or, perhaps your brain just decided to think, and your teapot thought synapse was the most immediate one.

B. It had no cause. As you might imagine, it was completely causeless. In such a situation, you did not will it, so even so, you did not have "free will" in the situation. It was random, ridiculous, and still negates the concept of free will.

People seem to have this idea that the existence of the metaphysical somehow negates our knowledge of the physical, and automatically allows for things such as free will, and more. Yet, I find any metaphysical object that is neither controlled by cause and effect, or completely random, to be implausible. Futhermore, just because there is something metaphysical, doesn't necessarily mean it's affiliated with our minds or will.

To recap, it seems to me that there is what we are given, and what we experience (which knowledge is derived from.) Since, I was granted my mind (or brain, or both), and I know that my mind processes information that is given to it. I get my information from some source. The mind must already know how to compute, or have a method of computing. Because, if it learns to compute through some way, then it must have the ability to compute how to compute, ad infinitum.

So if there is the information that is granted to me (controlled by my environment and circumstance) and my mind/whatever else is involved (already set up, without my control), then there is nothing there that is "free will." Furthermore, we have to base decision off of SOMETHING. To base it off something, we must be bias in someway- I.E. if we had no bias then we could never choose, out of having no priority. The only way to obtain bias is for it to be granted or learned. For it to be learned and applied, there must be a bias that allowed that, ad infinitum. Making a decision is an example of cause and effect.

The bias of consciousness is also and argument I've used against the existence of a non-bias, judgemental God. The point being that unless we know *everything* we are bias, since we know only that which we do. For God to not be bias (a sword through the idea of his fair judgement) he must know everything. Since there is a never ending amount of knowledge, such as the infinite past and continuing future (and supposedly we have free will so he cannot know the future) then he must in fact be bias. However, that is irrelevant to the topic at hand so I'll disregard it.

I would go on to speak about probability, but then I would only be further digging in on determinism. I know it seems like all I've done is explained determinism in my own terms, but I believe my most important point is that the unlikelihood of free will is not changed by the existence of the metaphysical.

Thanks,
Theo