[Andre Wissler]

Andre Wissler asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Hi Chris,
 
I try and catch you as often as possible on Rudi's show on 702 Talk Radio in Jhb. Great show and love your answers to the questions.
 
I was wondering if you ever touched on the subject of "free will" i.e. do we have "free will" in the actions that we do as human beings or are our actions / day to day activities all governed by our environment or perhaps even "pre-programmed"?
 
I suppose it is a bit of the Nature vs. Nurture argument.
 
If you have a podcast around this topic I would be interested to listen to it, please can you send me the link. Else perhaps you can discuss it this Friday with Rudi.
 
Please let me know.
 
Thanks and kind regards
Andre

What do you think?

[Bored chemist]

We are predestined to think we do.
It depends on the definition of freewill you choose.

[Don_1]

Yes, we do have free will, but only within certain constraints can we come to realise it.

As far as nature goes, our free will may be impossible to realise. For example, the will to fly like a bird cannot be realised due to the constraints of nature.

Our free will to chose our own destiny may be contrained by our own abilities or by outside forces. Nurture may not subdue our free will, as can be seen in Burma, China and other totalitarian regimes. But such regimes can, and do, suppress free will.

As for those in the 'free' world, even our free will is suppressed by the constraints of acceptability, economics and whole host of other factors.

So, yes, you can have free will, but acting it out is a different matter altogether.

[Bill S]

Interesting how even the scientifically minded can resort to dogmatic statements when the subject is right. 
I doubt that anyone would deny (is that the only 4-letter English word ending in "eny"?) that our free will, if we have it, is subject to constraints, but what about some evidence as to whether or not we actually have it; or should this thread be in something other than science?  []

[Bored chemist]

" Since I don't have a clue about the original question I will answer this one instead.
(is that the only 4-letter English word ending in "eny"?)
I will choose randomly from a number of alternatives.
Eeny, meeny, miney, mo....

[SteveFish]

Do humans have free will? If you ask the strongest advocate of free will to define what he/she is talking about it is easy to explain their example as deterministic. So, the answer to the question is yes, but free will is determined, and free will versus determinism is not a dichotomy. This is one of those questions that is fun to argue about, but has little effect on daily life. If you don't agree, please define free will.

[Bill S]

Eeny, meeny, miney, mo....

Some of your 4-letter words betray a sad disregard for basic arithmetic.
Back off - this could get very silly. []

[Bored chemist]

Work is a four letter word.
The important point is that "eeny" is too, and so demonstrates the falsehood of the hypothesis.
If you look closely, you will see that most of the words in my  post don't have 4 letters.

Do you know the nursery rhyme that starts "Eeny, meeny, miney, mo"?

[Pikaia]

It seems like a meaningless question to me. Suppose you had two identical Earths, but on one people had free will, on the other they didn't. What differences would you expect to see?

[Bored chemist]

On one earth when you asked people if they had free will they would say they did and they would be right.
On the other earth they would still say they had free will, but they would be wrong.
I'm not sure how you could tell which was which.

I think you have essentially nailed this debate.
Well done!

[Bill S]

Do you know the nursery rhyme that starts "Eeny, meeny, miney, mo"?

Yes, and it is as dubious politically as your reasoning seems to be, logically. []

[Bill S]

On the other earth they would still say they had free will, but they would be wrong.

Unless, of course, they knew they did not have free will, in which case they might say no.

[Bored chemist]

On the other earth they would still say they had free will, but they would be wrong.

Unless, of course, they knew they did not have free will, in which case they might say no.

Then they wouldn't be people.

[CliffordK]

There is always a balance between "Nature", "Nurture", and "Free Will".

There are certainly aspects of a personality that are genetic, or a genetic predisposition.  They are hard to explain, but at least there is growing evidence for  genetic aspects such as addictive behavior. 

Likewise, if you think of Autistic Spectrum, at some levels it leads to very dysfunctional people.  At other levels it can lead to some extremely bright scientists, and musicians.  I'm convinced that it is more than a "disorder", but many scientists and engineers have a "scientific mind".

Many parents would love to have no "free will", and everything based on "Nurture"...  if their children would only do what they were TOLD!!!!  But, at the same time, one certainly doesn't want puppets. 

A lot can be learned though.  Some things not entirely intentional.  For example my mother makes her dog sit in the back seat of the car.  He gets a treat if he sits back on his own seat...  so what did he learn?  Well, the first thing when he gets into the car is to get his two front feet up onto the center console...  so Mom will command him "back"...  and then he gets his treat.

In the end, there may be some desires and compulsions.  We may learn to control some, and not others, and perhaps even develop more that we've learned.

But...  we don't just puppet back what is in our genes, or what someone has taught us, but we add a little something unique to each of us, and unique to each situation.  And this is our "Free Will".

[CPT ArkAngel]

If you agree with the Theory of conservation of the information that says that all information of our material Universe cannot be lost in any way, Free Will would imply that we generate new information all the time... If we are generator of information, does it mean that our consciousness is not only in the material Universe but in other dimensions that are interacting with the material Universe? New information has to come from somewhere else... The material Universe could be perfected eternally by being modified by our free will and consciousness...

[Geezer]

If you agree with the Law of Conservation of Information, you will probably also agree with the "theory" of Intelligent Design and disagree with the Theory of Evolution.

[CPT ArkAngel]

The Theory of evolution may be true but the creation of evolution would be caused by the interactions of consciousness through the material world... Both Theory could be true... Everybody would be happy... [)]

[CPT ArkAngel]

When you choose to have a baby with your girlfriend or boyfriend, you make a decision that will change evolution. I have no doubt about the Theory of Evolution. It is not complete but there is enough science to prove it...

[tbarron]

On the other earth they would still say they had free will, but they would be wrong.

Unless, of course, they knew they did not have free will, in which case they might say no.

Then they wouldn't be people.

My guess is that on both planets, the majority of the respondents would say "Yes" while a minority would say "No". On Planet Free Will, the majority would be right and the minority wrong. On Planet Determinism, the majority would be wrong and the (smart) minority would be right. You still wouldn't be able to tell which planet is which.

(Reality held a gun to my head while I wrote this post. I had no choice.)

[yor_on]

Of course we all have a will, but if it's a free one? As so many pointed out here it's constricted by circumstances, and when taken to its limit pointless. What would you call being give a choice of how to die, it's 'free will' but for a healthy, reasonably happy human, not a especially engaging spectrum of choices.

But as a theory I would say, sure we all have a 'free will'. We even surprise ourselves with it sometimes