Free will
Okay so, let me get the story straight.
First of all, what is free will? Cause if we don't come to a global definition of it, the possible explanations that might come afterwards won't lead to a solution.
Free will, as it seems to me, is the ability to choose. Being able to make decisions for ourselves.
Now, on a neural network level, this might rise some issues. Psychology of memory has proven that all the information we store has a property called 'weight', through which a memory (an object, a person, a fact) will be more relevant the more it is used and reinforced. This way, with the simple task 'think of someone you know in your life', there is this first person that will pop up in your mind and the reason for it to be there might be due to its recent use, to its relevance, or many more reasons. But our consciousness didn't necessarily choose that one person as the one we 'consciously' want to think of on the first place.
In a similar way, when you are asked to lift a hand will lead to making a decision between left and right, but that decision might be already made since previous exposure of life experiences will have re-inforced certain neural pathways more than others, leading to choose one hand over the other. And if we decide to ignore that predominant tendency and choose the other hand, there will also be an inner cue leading to that thought and therefore, making that decision for you.
These two examples could suggest that, at least in the very small decisions in our daily life, we are pre-conditioned by the things we live, learn and re-inforce, and therefore we don't have free will.
From a broader perspective, and in relation to changing our minds, free will is about that, about changing our minds, And to change our minds, in a short or long term decision, means that there was a pre-determined choice (the one we don't really choose but pops up to our consciousness because it was meant to do so), and that something inside us decided not to follow that advice, something that could perfectly be consciousness manifesting its free will in tiny aspects as well.
Changing our minds and therefore making an actual, conscious decision, implies to gain awareness of the decision to make and the choices that are already there, enabling us to make a judgement, decide whether we agree with that pre-determined choice/thought and acting in consequence. That is itself a manifestation of free will. What's more, free-will regards deciding to do something we are aware of; and performing a conscious decision implies generating reasons/pros that support that idea. If we can justify our choices, it means that we have the volunty to make those choices intstead of other ones... Isn't this free will?
We are not prisioners the thoughts that come into our heads on the first place, and what's more, not following those thoughts is the base of many successfull therapies such as psychodynamic psychotherapy, schema-based therapy, and so on. Yes, we do have some pre-determined ideas as a result of our environment and the personality traits we were born with, but we definitely have the ability to change them and I can only think of our consciousness and free will to achieve that.
First of all, what is free will? Cause if we don't come to a global definition of it, the possible explanations that might come afterwards won't lead to a solution.
Free will, as it seems to me, is the ability to choose. Being able to make decisions for ourselves.
Now, on a neural network level, this might rise some issues. Psychology of memory has proven that all the information we store has a property called 'weight', through which a memory (an object, a person, a fact) will be more relevant the more it is used and reinforced. This way, with the simple task 'think of someone you know in your life', there is this first person that will pop up in your mind and the reason for it to be there might be due to its recent use, to its relevance, or many more reasons. But our consciousness didn't necessarily choose that one person as the one we 'consciously' want to think of on the first place.
In a similar way, when you are asked to lift a hand will lead to making a decision between left and right, but that decision might be already made since previous exposure of life experiences will have re-inforced certain neural pathways more than others, leading to choose one hand over the other. And if we decide to ignore that predominant tendency and choose the other hand, there will also be an inner cue leading to that thought and therefore, making that decision for you.
These two examples could suggest that, at least in the very small decisions in our daily life, we are pre-conditioned by the things we live, learn and re-inforce, and therefore we don't have free will.
From a broader perspective, and in relation to changing our minds, free will is about that, about changing our minds, And to change our minds, in a short or long term decision, means that there was a pre-determined choice (the one we don't really choose but pops up to our consciousness because it was meant to do so), and that something inside us decided not to follow that advice, something that could perfectly be consciousness manifesting its free will in tiny aspects as well.
Changing our minds and therefore making an actual, conscious decision, implies to gain awareness of the decision to make and the choices that are already there, enabling us to make a judgement, decide whether we agree with that pre-determined choice/thought and acting in consequence. That is itself a manifestation of free will. What's more, free-will regards deciding to do something we are aware of; and performing a conscious decision implies generating reasons/pros that support that idea. If we can justify our choices, it means that we have the volunty to make those choices intstead of other ones... Isn't this free will?
We are not prisioners the thoughts that come into our heads on the first place, and what's more, not following those thoughts is the base of many successfull therapies such as psychodynamic psychotherapy, schema-based therapy, and so on. Yes, we do have some pre-determined ideas as a result of our environment and the personality traits we were born with, but we definitely have the ability to change them and I can only think of our consciousness and free will to achieve that.
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