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Of course you can control your actions. But that doesn't mean they can't be influenced by external factors like drugs, weather, or in your case low blood sugar.
by hattmall 3y ago
Of course you can control your actions. But that doesn't mean they can't be influenced by external factors like drugs, weather, or in your case low blood sugar.
You don't have absolute total free will in all situations. That's why development of willpower is such a huge discipline (religion, meditation, etc).
There's a range where your blood sugar starts to influence your actions, with more willpower and cultivating a less cranky personality you could certainly extend that range.
Some people have similar non-beneficail reactions to high stress situations, other people develop the skill to abstain from those actions and maintain control in those situations.
- pixl97 3y agoWillpower occurs after awareness. They are objectively different things. If you are not aware of something, you cannot choose to make a reaction for or against it. For example, imagine that your body did not detect heat. If you put your hand on a burner you would instinctively withdraw from it (and yes this happens in people that do not feel pain). Willpower is in the ballpark of conscious awareness. "I choose to do X or Y" Training on the other hand attempts to remove the conscious decision part from the mind after awareness occurs. "If X then Y", this way you're not wasting time and brainpower trying to figure out what's going on.
- hattmall 3y agoI'm not sure what you are trying to say, but free will, I think, requires consciousness. If you want to train to keep your hand on a burner wouldn't that be free will. Are we implying that because we can sense pain and other things that we don't have free will. Free will doesn't mean you are omnipotent. You can choose to put your hand on a burner and you can choose to practice keeping it there, both are examples of free will. An instinct to avoid pain isn't negating the free ability to make choices.