# Do we have a free will?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-a-free-will/669993>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [September 30, 2013, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-a-free-will/669993 "2013-09-30T12:21:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-a-free-will/669993/21 "2013-09-30T21:00:34Z")

</div>

Free will strikes me as either impossible (uncaused causes) or arising from quantum randomness, which isn’t what most people mean by free will. And it’s an illusion that’s here to stay as part of our day to day mental activities, unless you consume [mind altering drugs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_death) or [suffer from depersonalization disorder.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depersonalization_disorder)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Stealth\_Potato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Stealth\_Potato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Potato)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-a-free-will/669993/22 "2013-09-30T21:44:11Z")

</div>

> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> The second is “free will vs. determinism.” Philosophers have been arguing this one for centuries (and we’ve had some threads here, in the Great Debates forum, on the issue). The answer **tim-n-va** gives is a position that _some_ people hold, but the issue is far from settled.

It’s far from settled inasmuch as it’s impossible to “settle” a debate where one of the positions is fundamentally incoherent. The debate on whether we have free will is isomorphic to the debate on whether we have _Fweem_. Nobody knows what fweem is, and nobody can describe any difference between a world in which fweem exists and a world in which fweem does not exist. And yet many people are highly opinionated about fweem even though their attempts to describe it are invariably self-contradictory.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-a-free-will/669993/23 "2013-09-30T22:00:10Z")

</div>

> [@CoastalMaineiac](#):
>
> Isn’t there a part of quantum theory that says the past, present, and future are all happening simultaneously? If so, the only thing that makes events appear to happen in some kind of sequence would be our own brains.
> 
> Couldn’t we infer from that that the future has already happened? We just haven’t experienced it yet. If the future has already happened, then how could we possibly, through our will or actions, change any part of it?

What difference does it make? If the present-existence-of-the-future is something we cannot even in principle perceive from our present-present existence, than from our POV we might as well be living in a free-will universe.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-a-free-will/669993.md?page=1)