First of all, I need to say that, even if it is ignorant, I even do not bother to read philosophical speculations.

I am interested in empirical premises. I’ve heard that there is some research, where scientists, monitoring activity of a person’s brain, are able to predict which switch (s)he’s going to switch, before (s)he does, or maybe before (s)he’s conscious about the choice. This implies that our decisions are results of some chemical processes determined aside of our “free choice” and so called free will is only an illusion, a way in which alternatives presents to us, while the choice is made already deep in our minds unconsciously and maybe even deterministically. Does anybody know this research and could cite it?

Since I am constantly busy, I really sucks in the theory, so could anybody say what’s the Marxist stance on free will if any?

  • ByteFoolish@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’m not as educated on the subject as you seem to be, but I think I fall in the determinism camp as well. Can I ask how it impacts how you live your life? For me I think I mostly just ignore it/live as if I did have free will

    • cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Just to be clear, i am not in the strict determinism camp, i believe our current understanding of physics says that there is an inherent element of randomness to reality, but it’s a randomness that we have absolutely no control over hence why it can’t be called free will.

      It doesn’t impact my life at all. It’s a purely academic discussion with no practical application. For all intents and purposes it is impossible to live without the illusion of free will. And we also need to pretend that others have free will too else we can’t have a society.

      • ByteFoolish@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yeah I agree with that. I may have used the wrong term. It doesn’t impact my life either. But for some reason that doesn’t feel like a satisfying answer so I wanted to ask to see if anyone thinks about it differently