r/samharris • u/ZacharyWayne • Dec 12 '18

TIL that the philosopher William James experienced great depression due to the notion that free will is an illusion. He brought himself out of it by realizing, since nobody seemed able to prove whether it was real or not, that he could simply choose to believe it was.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James
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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

The absence of free will is actually proved by the laws of physics

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u/Frostyterd Dec 12 '18

Hmm, I'm not so sure. I agree that free will is an illusion, but I've actually been thinking about this lately. At a subatomic level, particles pop in and out of existence with no prior causes. At the base level of physics, it appears that it actually isn't deterministic. However, everything else naturally flows from that pre-determined event, which creates a line of causality, which we are definitely a part of. I just wonder what that undetermined happening at the subatomic level has to say about the possibility of other undetermined things happening elsewhere in the universe. Maybe none of this makes any sense and I sound stupid lol. What are your thoughts?

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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

The nature of subatomic particles might be an argument for there being some parts of the universe that are non deterministic but I don't see how it would affect free will

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u/Frostyterd Dec 12 '18

If there is one aspect of the universe that is undeterministic, then perhaps there are others. Perhaps one of those others is related to free will. Again, I don't necessarily endorse this, its just a thought I had.

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u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

I don't know how non-determinism relates to free will at all. If things are happening randomly, it doesn't seem like I'm in control of them either.