Sam Harris on the Illusion of Free Will

I'm watching this due to a long chain of prior causes, over which I had no control .

The Zen people have nailed it: "You can do as you wish, but you cannot wish as you wish."

Told my law lecturer this today... everyone laughed. But it is fine, they couldn't choose otherwise.

Man is truly free when he realizes that he is not free. All of the great achievements in life were accomplished by individuals who felt compelled by something within them they knew not what.

So basically a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

"of course we have free will. We have no choice in the matter": C. Hitchens.

Free will is an illusion, because all our supposed choices are determined by our likes and dislikes. And we don't choose our likes and dislikes. Easy as that.

sam harris changed my life. i dont understand why people resist this idea either. it is profoundly calming.

I don't see a red pill and a blue pill to choose between, I see a blue peanut M&M and a orange peanut M&M and I will eat them both, and most of the bag if I find it.

A person encounters even more trouble believing "2 + 2 = 4" in a world full of people who do not agree.

The illusion of choice. I often feel like a soul that's along for a ride in this awful and beautiful world. My best moments are completely absent of self awareness. A hilariously timed fart also brings me much joy.

Mark Twain “What is man?” He makes a good argument that we are just machines. I believe he also makes a point that we don’t have an original thought. He says we don’t do a single thing ever unless we get something out of it first. For example if we give money to a homeless person it was for the joy of giving or possibly from not feeling the guilt of not giving.

I told my friend this. He attempted to prove me wrong by pushing the space bar. I asked him why he wanted to do that. He said to prove me wrong. I said why. He did not know why.

Yes the choices we make are probably predetermined, I don't think choice necessarily means escaping causality, but is the simple ability to conceptualize two options and see their destinations and weigh the benefits of each. So Choice is more like sight, an awareness of what could be, and the understanding of the probability of what will be.

"With or without free will, beliefs have consequences"

To conclude: You have the freedom to choose but your options are limited by prior causes. So try to make the best of it Choose wisely!

Sam, several years ago, I saw a PBS documentary about many sets of twins raised separately who meet as adults, not knowing very much about each other. They come to the meeting wearing similar clothes and jewelry and hair styles, have worked in the same industry, the same lifestyles, even have the same lawn furniture. All these choices they thought were conscious choices but their genes made the decisions for them. The implications are huge, seems to me.

So nothing is my fault after all! And the fact that I didn't do my homework is just bad luck and I couldn't have avoided watching Game of Thrones when I should have been doing it! This is a game changer.

the easiest way to comprehend it is this. if i asked you to pick an orange or a banana, do you have a choice? because if i went back in time 30 seconds from now and asked you the same thing again under the same circumstances. pick an orange or a banana, you would pick the same thing because nothing changed in either timeline, the circumstances were identical so theres no reason to suggest that you would choose differently. so if the choice is always the same, then logically, you never had a choice. your choice was predetermined. ps. you probably picked banana...

Perhaps there is no "free" will, but just "will", the freedom of which depends not so much on itself but on the total amount of forces that tend to confine it.