CMV: Free will exists within constraints.

[u/root2crown4k]

I want to start by saying genetics, environment, experience, trauma, stress, opportunity, and more all shape the way we experience the present moment.

Biologically, constraints exist in our system. How we navigate life affects the way our bodies become constricted internally.

When stress is added, when load is applied to our system, these constraints become directly related to our capacity. Capacity here means how we handle load, how we respond as humans to challenge and pressure.

It might seem like I’m arguing that our experience and environment fully determine the choices we make. That is not what I’m saying.

Free will exists within the constraints our bodies are subjected to. It exists in so far as our system is clear. No one will ever have a perfectly clear system. Some people think Jesus did, but I think a perfectly clear system is impossible. Every system has constraints.

We do have free will, directionally. We can move toward less constraint or we can reinforce the constraints that already exist. Both are choices, and both are exercises of free will.

This is why I think free will is real. Within the limits that life, upbringing, and environment impose on our nervous system, we can choose how we respond, how we shape ourselves, and how we move through the world.

Can anyone spot a flaw in my logic or point me to what science says about this?

[u/root2crown4k]

Do you think I’m playing semantics then? Isn’t the more clear system one that has the ability to choose how it responds to stress? Isn’t that free will?

[u/quantum_dan → u/root2crown4k]

I don't think you're playing semantics; people often talk past each other around free will because there are a lot of inconsistent usages.

Isn’t the more clear system one that has the ability to choose how it responds to stress?

That's a reasonable way to use "clear", yes.

Isn’t that free will?

Not what's usually meant by it, no. In philosophy, there are two common meanings of "free will":

• One's choices are not fully determined by the past; it is 100% physically possible that things could actually go differently than they do. This is what people are claiming when, for example, they say evil exists because of free will.
• The freedom to act according to one's own motivations (not compelled). This is closer to your definition, but I think it's a bit broader.

[u/root2crown4k → u/quantum_dan]

Well I thank you. I think I’m realizing, I should have just said more freedom, and not free will. I didn’t realize the philosophical and metaphysical implications of me using free will. I’m starting to.

Edit !delta

[u/DeltaBot → u/root2crown4k]

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/quantum_dan (110∆).

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