Free Will

[YesNo]

After reading this I changed my mind abt the free will"
"This trend began even before the work of psychologists such as Benjamin Libet, who showed that the conscious feeling of willing an act actually occurs after the brain process that brings about the act"
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/18/op...=fb-share&_r=0
with this fact arises the need for an external system " moral , metaphysical ,.." to follow and to be hold responsible according to it

I agree with the two mistakes that were attributed to Descartes: (1) "...our knowledge of our mind's nature is more reliable than any other belief" and (2) "...his denial that other animals have any mental lives at all."

I don't think that leads to a total lack of free will, but our free will is part of a larger will. I wonder if that is what you are suggesting with the "need for an external system".

Here is an overview of Libet and his experiment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Libet

[caddy_caddy]

Yes, another point of reference, call it a larger will or another will .Moreover,this justifies the existence of the divine will.The article says that there is no first point of view and that we" read "ourselves not know ourselves.Maybe our brain "reads"our destiny .

[YesNo]

I think part of Libet's experiements show there is a larger will as you mention. If one couples them with evidence from psi research (see Dean Radin) it looks like we are part of something larger that is conscious and not unconscious.

There are two positions about free will that I think are incorrect:

1) The view that we are determined by unconscious, materialistic causes seems wrong.

2) The view that we have free will as individuals seems wrong. When we exercise free will we do so in a shared way with other parts of reality that are also conscious and which influence our choices, but do not determine them.

[Magnocrat]

A mind boggling thread but very fascinating.
'Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and saint, and heard great argument
About it and about: but evermore came out
By the same door as in I went.'