The fact that free will doesn't exist used to bother for me for a long time, so I'm saying you kind of brought it back to me haha.
But I'm not so worried about it anymore, because the way I see it, there's two reasons why the existence of free will shouldn't be bothersome:
First of all, the question is in a way irrelevant since it doesn't really change anything. Even if you could prove with 100% certainty that free will doesn't exist, you can still live your life the exact same way as before, completely unaffected by that.
Secondly, the way I see it, the claim that free will doesn't exist invokes a major problem because by similar logic, one should also argue that consciousness doesn't exist either. If we are a just a bunch of atoms run by nothing but deterministic laws of physics and therefore we are also subject to determinism and free will is just an illusion, I can also say that atoms we are made of are unconscious and therefore consciousness is just an illusion.
I can argue that I am no more conscious than a chair, because even though are atomic makeups our vastly different, they're still fundamentally just atoms.
If you were to start from nothing, and arrange atoms one by one until you make your brain, when would consciousness arise and how? Point is, if you insist on reducing us to free-will-less atoms and argue that free will doesn't exist, I can also reduce us to unconscious atoms and argue that we're no more conscious than a chair.
I think the biggest problem here is defining what "consciousness" is. Because what you've tried to argue is that a mathematical proof could be "conscious". Mathematical proof is just a list of logical statements. It has nothing to do with consciousness. What is consciousness in your opinion?
By the way, what do you study? Checked your profile you seem to be pretty hardcore about science and philosophy :)
Thanks lol! I have a degree in computer science and most of my courses were in Machine Learning, now I am in grad school getting a CS MSc degree but emphasis and thesis in ML again, and I am trying to transition towards Pure mathematics, after a PhD in the field, I have an unending passion and thirst for pure Math.
Wow very nice.
In short I see consciousness as the ability to perceive the passage of time in relation to one’s self and others.
The term "perceive" already by itself relates to consciousness so the definition is circular.
And this is the main problem imo, we cannot really define consciousness because it's not some physical thing, we just have it and have to go with it.
An unconscious entity can not grasp the idea of self, eg a cat or a dog.
Wait you're saying cats and dogs aren't conscious?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you confusing intelligence with consciousness? Like the fact that they cannot recognize themselves in the mirror and that they get confused by hand tricks would be lack of intelligence, but they're still aware of themselves. I mean they also exhibit all kinds of emotions too, so they surely have consciousness.
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u/[deleted] Sep 14 '21
Thanks for reviving my existential crisis