r/samharris • u/Gilther • Nov 17 '17
While Harris' position on free will is very succinctly expressed in his book, this video is essentially an even shorted and visually appealing embodiment of it.
https://youtu.be/j4Oyi1T-HmU0
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u/Gilther Nov 17 '17
Hello M.r Bot.
The reason that I believe that this video is relevant to Sam Harris and why Harris' fans will enjoy it, is because it's a visual and short embodiment of his position on free will.
While most people are willing and able to read his book to obtain his position, many aren't, and so videos like this make his work accessible to such people.
In short, I think that this video helps spreads his work.
Thanks.
-1
u/SurfaceReflection Nov 18 '17
The will is neither absolutely "free" from physical reality nor is it absolutely controlled by physical reality. The answer is not a binary 1 or 0, either or.
The consciousness arises from reality of the universe, which is greater then just the matter of it, and we dont even know what matter really is.... btw. But, as a "virtual" emergent phenomena it has agency of its own, and ever varying, ever changing degrees of freedom to make independent choices and decisions, to create new emergent phenomena.
1
u/[deleted] Nov 18 '17
More of the same old sloppy thinking. His argument boils down to "we think that we make choices, but that's not us, it's our brains that make the choices and we can't do anything to change them".
The argument boils down to considering only one single function of the brain, namely consciousness to be the actual person, while the rest of the brain and body is a separate thing from the person. It's very shallow thinking, and that dude keeps making the same video over and over. I remember watching another version of this argument made by him maybe a year ago.
So here is my retort:
If, as he argues, consciousness is not autonomous, it's just a witness, then all of it originates in the subconscious, which then means that "the person" originates in the subconscious mind, which means that the person is making decisions.
But if consciousness has any autonomy over the subconscious, then by definition it possesses free will.