Free will is the ability to take a decision without being coerced by other parties. For example if I am doing recruitment, I do not have freewill if I am forced to select / reject a candidate by someone else (say, X). That X is overriding my free or independence assessment.
Taking this analogy further.. What is free will within me?
If I am able to make a decision - it doesn't matter if the decision is right or wrong, good or bad - so long as I am able to make an independent decision I have freewill. Now if subconscious thoughts or emotions or whatever (STEW or what Daniel Kahnemann calls System 1) force or guide me to make a decision then this STEW is no different from the X mentioned previously - meaning the STEW has taken over my decision making process. All that I am allowed to do is sign the document and take credit for having made the decision.
So a decision or action made with freewill is one where the STEW either has no role to play or it may suggest some options but where I am aware of these suggestions and am capable of overriding these suggestions each time. Meaning that if I overrode the suggestion for one decision, I dont feel guilty and won't give in to STEW for the next action or decision. If I give in, I don't have freewill.. But if I believe that STEW's choice was justified then I might go for it. That is freewill. Freewill, perhaps, is then System 2 (=S2, terminology of Daniel Kahnemann) at work. In which case 2 is supposedly lazy, it won't do if S2 does a sloppy job and just endorses what S1 said. Then that isn't freewill at work. So decisions whete S2 puts in a lot of effort will result in expression of freewill.
Now, how many times are we aware of STEW's decisions which we implicitly follow? How often do we act or decide which are not dictated by STEW?
Which act or decision of ours is not mostly or wholly impacted by STEW? Even if your System 2 (S2 for short) was invoked, it was invoked by S1=STEW. If you didn't have access to the STEW how will your decision be? It will be like that of the first man on earth during his initial stages of life who had no STEW. What kind of acts would he have done? I guess only random ones - learning to eat and procreate. Hardly an evolved being.
We evolved from no S1 to S1 to high S1 actively invoking S2.
Additional reading:
http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2015/03/krishna-and-kalyavan.html
We evolved from no S1 to S1 to high S1 actively invoking S2.
Additional reading:
http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2015/03/krishna-and-kalyavan.html
freewill? Is it not true that decision is mostly dependent on a specific situation or mindset of the moment too ? So is this not the guiding force behind the decision made? Where is freewill? Why would a decision go wrong or be a cause of guilt / regret if not for these influential factors ?
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