North Korean kids. By Benoit Cappronnier
Is life fair?
Why does one person apparently 'choose' to be 'good' and another person apparently 'choose' to be 'bad'?
According to some philosophers, our actions are either determined by matters such as heredity and environment, or they are a matter of chance.
Brazil. By carf
It suits the top criminals to believe that their 'wicked' actions are purely the result of heredity, environment and chance.
But, we do know that when people believe in some kind of 'free will', they do tend to behave better.
Ireland 1932. By pantuflaSome people have suggested that only one 'entity' has real free will.
And only that one 'entity' is good.
That one person is 'God'.
Or the Tao, or the Force, or the Holy Spirit, or the divine...
By fabianfredParadoxically, it may be that if we give up our supposed 'free will', we can then follow the will of 'God' (or go with the flow, tune into the Tao, realise that we are part of 'God') and live happily ever after.
By Alexander MacfarlaneThe Buddhists would say that our sense of being a separate 'self' is an illusion.
"All the delightful things of the world - sweet sounds, lovely forms, all the pleasant tastes and touches and thoughts - these are all agreed to bring happiness if they are not grasped and possessed.
But if you regard them merely as pleasures for your own use and satisfaction and do not see them as passing wonders, they will bring suffering.
-Sutta Nipata
Blog: Pleasure and Joy
By maria dupovkinaWe should practise non-attachment to lots of things.
But if you regard them merely as pleasures for your own use and satisfaction and do not see them as passing wonders, they will bring suffering.
-Sutta Nipata
Blog: Pleasure and Joy
This raises the question of why we are not all tuned into 'God' already.
One can speculate that if God is going to create 'a real world', then, as with a game of golf, there has to be an element of chance.
By IWGIA
Of course, things may always have existed.
The Buddhists would argue that 'God' may not be the best term to use.
Some Buddhists are not keen on the idea of a creator God.
By © Jamie Mitchell
Some Taoists would argue that every 'thing' and every 'action' is a mixture of 'good' and 'evil'.
"Taoists believe that nature is a continual balance between yin and yang, and that any attempt to go toward one extreme or the other will be ineffective, self-defeating, and short-lived."
What Taoists Believe
The Mohist philosophers in China believed that the purpose of life was universal, impartial love.By IWGIA
Of course, things may always have existed.
The Buddhists would argue that 'God' may not be the best term to use.
Some Buddhists are not keen on the idea of a creator God.
By © Jamie Mitchell
Some Taoists would argue that every 'thing' and every 'action' is a mixture of 'good' and 'evil'.
"Taoists believe that nature is a continual balance between yin and yang, and that any attempt to go toward one extreme or the other will be ineffective, self-defeating, and short-lived."
What Taoists Believe
Mohism promoted a philosophy of impartial caring - a person should care equally for all other individuals, regardless of their actual relationship to him or her.[48]
Is free will an illusion?
Ruben V Rial-Planas writes
"We can test the problem with my most perfect identical twin: myself!
"Trying to remember the most important decisions I took in my life, I ask myself what I would have done if I had had the possibility to relive again any of the decisive moments of my life - with the same imperfect knowledge and with the same external constraints I had.
"The results of analyzing my perfect twin’s behaviour are, in my opinion, absolutely clarifying: reliving my life would have rendered a life identical to the one I actually lived.
By rongpuk
"I can distinguish between two types of events as determinants of every minute fact that occurred in my life.
"Some were the result of conscious decisions, in many cases taken as the result of an evaluation of pros and cons (always with incomplete knowledge of the real situation).
"As it is impossible for me to take stupid decisions (the stupidity defined by myself), I was forced to decide in a determined way, searching the best results.
"In other cases my behaviour was the result of random and/or uncontrolled external factors. In the first case I would repeat my action; in the second, my response would be forced.
"However, if the external random factors would be the same, I also would repeat my action
By Mayank Austen Soofi
"So, the life of my identical twin entirely repeating my own life shows that I never had a true free will...
"My identical twin shows me the inescapability of Hume’s fork: My actions are either causally determined or random.
"In either case, I am not free."
By babasteve
Etienne Vermeersch writes (Is free will an illusion?):
Ruben Rial Planas shows in his 'twin analysis' that he has made two types of decisions in his life: those which were conscious, determined decisions and the others 'the result of random and/or uncontrolled external factors'.
To my astonishment he concludes: 'In either case I am not free', although he just made a brilliant analysis of the really free decisions: the conscious determined ones.
Ruben V Rial-Planas writes
"We can test the problem with my most perfect identical twin: myself!
"Trying to remember the most important decisions I took in my life, I ask myself what I would have done if I had had the possibility to relive again any of the decisive moments of my life - with the same imperfect knowledge and with the same external constraints I had.
"The results of analyzing my perfect twin’s behaviour are, in my opinion, absolutely clarifying: reliving my life would have rendered a life identical to the one I actually lived.
By rongpuk
"I can distinguish between two types of events as determinants of every minute fact that occurred in my life.
"Some were the result of conscious decisions, in many cases taken as the result of an evaluation of pros and cons (always with incomplete knowledge of the real situation).
"As it is impossible for me to take stupid decisions (the stupidity defined by myself), I was forced to decide in a determined way, searching the best results.
"In other cases my behaviour was the result of random and/or uncontrolled external factors. In the first case I would repeat my action; in the second, my response would be forced.
"However, if the external random factors would be the same, I also would repeat my action
By Mayank Austen Soofi
"So, the life of my identical twin entirely repeating my own life shows that I never had a true free will...
"My identical twin shows me the inescapability of Hume’s fork: My actions are either causally determined or random.
"In either case, I am not free."
By babasteve
Etienne Vermeersch writes (Is free will an illusion?):
Ruben Rial Planas shows in his 'twin analysis' that he has made two types of decisions in his life: those which were conscious, determined decisions and the others 'the result of random and/or uncontrolled external factors'.
To my astonishment he concludes: 'In either case I am not free', although he just made a brilliant analysis of the really free decisions: the conscious determined ones.
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