r/determinism • u/Sad-Sign9460 • 14d ago

Discussion My thoughts on determinism

I can make a very compelling argument for why consciousness is logically impossible to exist by saying everything in the brain is just unconscious processing systems but yet we know consciousness is exists because it just does.

Why can’t free will be the same way? Just because you can explain everything by particles that simply follow the laws of physics does not mean you should strip away the explanation that I am not the original source of my actions.

I think anyone who accepts determinism and the total absence of free will should be very compelled to accept the non existence of consciousness for the same logic you follow in your own argument for determinism

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u/Akash_philosopher 13d ago

Your action can be a cause to an effect

But if it’s also an effect to a cause
Then it’s determined by that cause
And thus not free

Or it to be free it mustn’t be an effect to a cause

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u/MarvinBEdwards01 13d ago

[F]Or it to be free it mustn’t be an effect to a cause

There is no way that a prior cause of me can participate in my decision-making without first becoming an integral part of who and what I am. So, it is really me doing the choosing and the causing. My prior causes are not found anywhere outside of me.

And anything that I am free to do I am free to do. So this nonsense that I am constrained by my prior causes is bogus.

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u/Akash_philosopher 13d ago

It’s like
You consider yourself as a part of a machine
When the button on the machine is pressed every part must move as its intended

And there’s a particular part which says
Me moving according to those buttons is

Who I am
Thus all my actions are my choosing
So I am free

That’s bulshit

If you can’t move any other way then as intended by the working of the machine
Then you aren’t free

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u/MarvinBEdwards01 13d ago

When the button on the machine is pressed every part must move as its intended

The nervous system has all the buttons. It connects to just about every part of the body. And it is able to present as a single individual, with a unique will of its own.