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I didn't say "irrational." I said "non-rational." What we are likely to do if we are not "free" is what natural selection has wired us to do, picking and choosing via survival and death. This would be "rational," I suppose, so far as it is possible to discern it, but it might not be what I would choose when I am free.
Well, yes, but can you see that if you make a strictly "rational" decision (or at least one that your brain thinks is "rational," since I doubt such a thing ever really exists), that this is not a free choice. What is "rational" is making the choice, and you are only obeying.
This is my quandary: I think it is necessary that free will exist or we are only machines, not beings, but I can't see how it could exist in a world of cause and effect. There has to be some non-rational, non-emotional, non-caused, non-random means by which we overcome what we are compelled to do and do something else that we freely have chosen. It all strikes me as spooky in an Einsteinian sense.
Please don't accuse me of having an answer to this; I don't have an answer to this and a lot of other things, but I do work hard at trying to understand the problem.
Reminds me of book I read last year (and which I took notes on), perhaps it might interest you.
Here are a few lines that address/explore causation & "free will", I boldfaced one of the sentences that really gets at the heart of the predicament.
Excerpts from "Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain" by David Eagleman, 2011-
Quote:
Originally Posted by pg.162:
"In fact, it is not clear how much the conscious you-as opposed to the genetic and neural you-gets to do any deciding at all."
Quote:
Originally Posted by pg.166:
"The crux of the question is whether all of your actions are fundamentally on autopilot or whether there is some little bit that is 'free' to choose, independent of the rules of biology. This has always been the sticking point for both philosophers and scientists. As far as we can tell, all activity in the brain is driven by other activity in the brain, in a vastly complex, interconnected network."
"So in our current understanding of science, we can't find the physical gap in which to slip free will-the uncaused causer-because there seems to be no part of the machinery that does not follow in a causal relationship from the other parts."
Quote:
Originally Posted by pg.168:
"A system that is probabilistic and unpredictable is every bit as unsatisfying as a system that is deterministic, because in both cases there's no choice."
if you were free would you not choose to make your decisions rationally?
If so then what is the need for "freewill"
You simply "are" that part of the brain that makes the decisions.
You assume there is such a thing as "the rational choice" in all cases. This is probably very rarely if ever the case. I don't really know what is meant by "rational." To be sure I have a notion, but in each case when I drill down into it I generally find that my biases cause me to think I'm rational when the reality is not so easy.
If the assumption that there is always a rational choice is correct, then, and if you always took it, then you would never exercise free will. You would always be controlled by the rational consideration and your choices would always be determined. In that case, a conscious, free-will being will sometimes do something irrational, if for no reason other than to remain free.
We have the notion of a "whim," and I think this word captures those situations when we are acting freely. When we carefully consider a matter, and weight the choices, and choose whatever seems best by some standard or another (what is rational, what is moral, what God would want, what is best for the world, what is best for me, what is best for my child -- the possible standards are endless) then our choice is determined by the outcome of our considerations and there is no free will involved.
rational is that which leads to our goals and irrational is that which leads away from our goals
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