Everybody – even kids –
knows that smoking cigarettes is bad for you, and that it's addictive. Yet as a teenager, most of us are presented with a cigarette by one of our peers, and we... choose either to smoke it, or not to. Isn't that free will?
Sure, it's seductive for a teenager to smoke that first cigarette, and your peers can be pretty damn coercive. But you still have free will in the matter. Many of us (most of us?) choose not to smoke cigarettes, despite all the temptation and coercion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by roachboy
depends what you mean by free will really. if you want to follow spinoza, the entire idea is a fiction in any event. he says that folk imagine themselves to be free because they're ignorant of what conditions their actions and believe in this quaint fiction called "will"... i think he's right--this is a metaphysical question and not a terribly interesting one at that.
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So, what conditioned
you to choose to subscribe to Spinoza's cynical and belittling view about free will?