Free will (long rant) If you don't believe in free will you have no choice but to check it out XD
I was arguing with a friend about free will and about what is good. (My friend does not believe in free will or any kind of non subjective good)
Note: whenever I use the word choose I mean taking the option that most benefits the thing that I am choosing.
I think that there isn't really any one thing that humans call good, there isn't really one set of criteria by which to define it. But I decided that if I was going to search for an objective and unquestionable good I'd call good that which is your moral obligation. If someone can prove that you are morally obligated to do something then it doesn't matter if you say that you consider for example that good is the search for happiness (because everyone wants it or whatever) you would still be obligated to do what is your moral obligation.
If you are morally obligated to do something then if presented with two or more choices you must choose the one that would be the most beneficiary to the thing that is the moral obligation. With that in mind one would just (yeah right, "just" :panic:) have to find something which is the thing that you are morally obligated to do and prove that that is the only thing that you are morally obligated to do.
Of course there is the possibility that there is no such thing as objective moral obligation, but I'll talk about that later.
After getting that far my friend and I started to discuss what that thing could be. I first suggested reason, since it's the only thing capable of making the classification that would allow someone to place the thing that is good above other things, but as my friend correctly pointed out the classification still exists even if there is no reason to understand it. (If it hadn't the existence of good would be tied to the existence of reason and since good is the thing that must be chosen those things that benefited reason would be the things with the highest priority to be chosen).
Next we tried will, not only will but those things in the universe that allow will to exist as well (for example if will were to exist and humans were the ones to have it then not only humans but also those things which keep them alive(earth, sun but not a galaxy far away that doesn't matter) would be the things that are good) and for a little while we thought that it was that thing that must be chosen, because it would be the only thing that could choose good, but then we realized that even if will didn't exist another thing could still be good and be the thing that must be chosen even if there weren't anything to choose it.
So there, I wasn't able to figure out what is the thing that must be chosen (assuming it exists).
Now begins the part about free will: (It's related to what came before, we talked about it simultaneously in the argument but I decided to separate it to make it less confusing, hopefully)
I define free will as the ability to be able to take an option out of many in such a way that it is not completely predictable which one you will choose but neither does it depend entirely on probabilities.
To clarify: If the universe is completely deterministic and follows rules set in stone then no free will however if the universe is not deterministic but those things that are not determined just depend on randomness with nothing to control them then still no free will.
I realize that I can't comprehend how such a thing as free will can be, but I can't really think of any definitive reason as to why it cannot.
So the conclusions I've arrived are: There might be a remote possibilities that something must be chosen and there might exist something which can choose it and (uuuuuuuuuuuunprobably though it may be) one of those things which can choose could be me.
Ok until now it seems that I'm a guy who believes that free will is such a remote and undirected possibility that it's not even worth considering, however I believe in free will for the following reasons.
I've arrived at conditions that I don’t think even the guy who believes the least in free will in the whole universe would complain about, if reduced my free will to the lowest possibility, but even in these conditions I still believe it makes more sense to believe in it.
Let us examine the possibilities of the universe under these conditions:
1. There is no free will, there is no moral obligation.
My possibilities. It doesn't even make sense to consider what to do because I have no control over it.
2. There is free will and I have it, there is no moral obligation.
My possibilities: I can do whatever I want, there is no objective good nothing I do has any moral meaning.
3. There is no free will but there is a moral obligation.
My possibilities: same as 1
4. There is free will but I don’t have it, there is no moral obligation.
My possibilities. Same as 1
5 There is free will but I don’t have it, there is a moral obligation.
My possibilities: same as 1
6 There is free will and I have it and there is a moral obligation.
My possibilities: I can choose that which is a moral obligation and do good. Of course since I have free will I can also not choose it and be bad.
Those are all the possibilities. Since its not 100% certain if we have free will of not we don’t know if our actions are the result of probabilities, determinism of free will. The logical choice is to assume that we are living under condition number 6, since no matter how much more probable the other are it is the only one that carries the chance to do what you must do.
Example: Imagine that the only 2 possibilities are 1 and 6. 1 carries a 99.9% chance of being true. But if you assume that it is true what are you gaining? A 0.1%percent chance of doing bad and a 99.9% chance of your actions not being objectively good or bad. however if you assume that you are living under possibility 6 you have a 0.1 chance of doing good and a 99.9% chance of doing nothing.
So it makes sense to assume that we have free will, improbable though it may be.
Or it would...
Since I can't find anything that must be that which must be chosen if such a thing exists even if I assume I have free will I have nothing to direct it at.
However I am now thinking that since it's my job to choose that thing. I do have one thing to choose, to exercise my reason since it's the only thing that might one day allow me to understand what that thing that I must choose is and once I do choose it.
And that is why I live under the assumption that I have free will.