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How can I truly have "free will" if my decisions are so dependent on external influences? You don't have actually free will, if by free you mean "uninfluenced

How can I truly have "free will" if my decisions are so dependent on external influences? You don't have actually free will, if by free you mean "uninfluenced by anything". There's no evidence that such a thing exists, and anyone who claims such a thing invariably appeals to supernatural or hand-wavy explanations. Note that many thinkers who claim free will exist actually are saying "what most people mean by 'free will' does exist", and usually that means "an agent capable of making choices without outside influence". This idea is compatible with determinism, so these people are called compatibilists.

bellerose 8y ago
How is being an agent capable of making choices without outside influence compatible with determinism? My understanding is nobody can ever be an agent capable of making choices without outside influence. A person is fundamentally influenced at birth by external forces and moulding the person by deterministic process without the person having any real control. Furthermore one could only say they had free will if before life one agreed to take role of birth as a specific person and with knowing how life will play out till the end. Compatibilists are people who don't understand determinism because free will doesn't work with determinism. /hard determinist.
- solipsism 8y ago
  I said "what most people mean by 'free will'" For most people, "outside influence" means, "at this point in time, only the contents of my brain affect the choice I make" and "no force or agent outside myself is compelling me to make a different choice than the one I'd make otherwise". It's a word game of course. Even if you try to be extremely precise with your definitions, to avoid this kind of thing, most people won't quite follow. Compatibilists believe what you believe. They just agree to use the popular, vague definition of free will instead of the strict one you're using.

bellerose 8y ago

How is being an agent capable of making choices without outside influence compatible with determinism? My understanding is nobody can ever be an agent capable of making choices without outside influence. A person is fundamentally influenced at birth by external forces and moulding the person by deterministic process without the person having any real control. Furthermore one could only say they had free will if before life one agreed to take role of birth as a specific person and with knowing how life will play out till the end. Compatibilists are people who don't understand determinism because free will doesn't work with determinism. /hard determinist.

solipsism 8y ago
I said "what most people mean by 'free will'" For most people, "outside influence" means, "at this point in time, only the contents of my brain affect the choice I make" and "no force or agent outside myself is compelling me to make a different choice than the one I'd make otherwise". It's a word game of course. Even if you try to be extremely precise with your definitions, to avoid this kind of thing, most people won't quite follow. Compatibilists believe what you believe. They just agree to use the popular, vague definition of free will instead of the strict one you're using.