is there free will?

[Centurion1]

Who says there is no rational mind? I need more context.

mentally impaired, small children is what i think he is hinting at as beskar has answered.

[Beskar]

There may be limited conceptual and educated choices in comparison, but there is still free will.

[CountArach]

I follow Sartre on this one, and say that yes there is free will and that we can know this through angst and anxiety.

[The Stranger]

to avoid confusion, the question is hypothetical. i dont conclude there is no rational mind, but if there is none, what would be the case.

Sasaki i will come back to your question soon. and as to beskar, that is not what i meant. i mean more, do we have control over our own actions or are they determined. if you can predict my actions but not alter them than you have no control, so my will is still free if already was in the first place.

the modern definition of free will, at least in the dictionaries includes the requirement of rationality.

Free will is the purported ability of rational agents to exercise control over their actions, decisions, or choices to such an extent that they can be held responsible for their selections. (wikipedia)

“Free Will” is a philosophical term of art for a particular sort of capacity of rational agents to choose a course of action from among various alternatives. (stanford)

and so the list continues.

maybe i should add another question, does an animal have free will. an animal like a pig per example.

[The Stranger]

I follow Sartre on this one, and say that yes there is free will and that we can know this through angst and anxiety.

meh but sartre's idea(l) of freedom and free will is unliveable. more over its unrational. so if we would apply the modern definition of free will to it, we would still not have free will according to the definition while sartre does contribute free will to the person in such cases.

[CountArach]

meh but sartre's idea(l) of freedom and free will is unliveable.

Actually his branch of existential thought is far more practically applicable than any other form of philosophy. I follow it, for instance. The simple idea is "we have free will and with that comes all the responsibility in the Universe to do what is right by our standards." That is a very workable and liveable philosophy.

[The Stranger]

Actually his branch of existential thought is far more practically applicable than any other form of philosophy. I follow it, for instance. The simple idea is "we have free will and with that comes all the responsibility in the Universe to do what is right by our standards." That is a very workable and liveable philosophy.

oh yes it is, and i agree. but sartre puts it so radical it becomes unliveable in the pure form he intends it. that was all i meant.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

If you lay out five different objects that have been rated as equally appealing by test groups, they will pick one and say they picked it because they liked it the best, pointing out some feature of the object that made them pick it. But in actuality they pick the one on the far right 80% of the time.

So you have to ask: in all of our "choices" are the reasons we think we have the actual reasons?

But then, what do you call our capacity to resist our basic urges at times, and the effect our thoughts can have on our actions?

I would replace free will with "will", the urge to follow a set of beliefs rather than our "lower" (for lack of a better word) urges.

I follow Sartre on this one, and say that yes there is free will and that we can know this through angst and anxiety.

I don't understand this...

[Rhyfelwyr]

I would replace free will with "will"

This is always exactly what I have thought on the issue. People then say that if the path you choose is always inevitable due to your own nature, then this makes you a robot. But surely with this logic all that 'free will' would mean is that we were robots with a random element in decision making.

[The Stranger]

I don't understand this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism#Angst

its sartre's philosophy based mostly on kierkegaard and heidegger's philosophy.

[Subotan]

Surely if we are able to say that we have free will, then we have free will?