Most people everywhere are very politically unaware. Here’s a decent site that demonstrates this. Basically, the knowledge we (by which I mean humans, not just Americans, of which I am not one) have leads us to make inaccurate assumptions about the other stuff.

No, now I’m old and don’t smoke anymore, but my mind still does this stuff to me anyway.

I mean, if I said to you, ‘Calculate 13x16’ (or some other sum you don’t know off the top of your head) you could either do it or not do it. That would be a willed choice, whether or not you knew the answer.

I think this is probably it. I think this argument is strongly related to the idea of consciousness as an emergent property of sensory experience. I find it simple to imagine the idea of a body with no will or no consciousness (i.e., a philosophical zombie). But I find it very difficult, almost impossible, in fact, to imagine a consciousness with no will, even if it’s only the will to think a given thought.

Thanks for the response! Would it change your answer at all if I had instead asked, ‘Why do we have the idea that we have free will?’

But my body also takes actions which I don’t control and of which I’m not conscious. E.g., normal cell death and replacement (granted, I would eventually notice if this stopped, but not in the short term). I don’t have the illusion of control over those actions, but I do have a sense (real or not) of control over others. My question is, why do I have that sense if it’s not real?

The premiss involves the idea that it would feel different, that my deliberate acts would feel (like cell replacement) like a thing that happens, rather than a thing I’m doing. Granted, if I were unconscious of all my acts, it wouldn’t feel like anything (like my experience of x-rays, which is a non-experience), but then I would be unconscious. So, if I’m interpreting you correctly, are you suggesting that the sense of will is a property of consciousness, and that consciousness is itself an emergent property of sensory experience?

Yes, that’s the question: if our acts are predetermined all the way back to the big bang, as you suggest, why do we feel that we determine them?

Perhaps I’m looking for less of a reason, more of an explanation?

dude

I always loved the Dark World theme from A Link to the Past. It has a triumphant feel, could work as an anthem!

There are many thing my body does which I’m aware of, but that I don’t will, and others that I have some control over, i.e., my will appears to play a role, but not the only role.

I don’t think it creates any kind of contradiction to suggest that, hypothetically, there could be more (or less) of either of those types of things, without my perceiving an invisible (external) force of some kind to be involved. After all, I don’t ascribe my heartbeat to an external force, but I am aware that I don’t will it.

Weird, now I know kung fu.

FIFA. Every man and boy in England loves FIFA, except me. I find it totally boring and pointless.

Sort of tangential, but Democritus was right about atoms, but obviously he worked it out in a very different way to how modern scientists did — though we don’t know his exact reasoning.

Even more tangential: Aristotle (and others) were wrong about the four elements making all matter, but they do correspond to the four basic states of matter, which is kind of fun: earth=solid, water=liquid, air=gas, fire=plasma.

This is a fair point, as far as it goes, and I’m happy to accept ‘mass shooters curently engaged in a mass shooting’ as an exception to the rule!

🫡

You cannot achieve any good by hurting people.

People are so convinced that if we’re more cruel to criminals, they’ll stop committing crimes, or if we’re harsher to workers, we’ll work harder, or if you’re tough on border controls, immigrants will go away. It does not work and it cannot work.

Well, you’ve convinced me! What should I do, o wise one?

Speaking as a guitarist, I have to say guitar is the easiest instrument to pick up and almost immediately make a cool sound with. Also, you can use guitar tab to play songs you’re familiar with. Tabs don’t really show rhythm, unlike sheet music, but are simple to read.

I am actually excited for the Labour programme, though I realise I’m in the minority! The lack of enthusiasm is mainly because people have so little faith things will actually get better and partly because Labour haven’t always been great at communicating why they’ve made (IMO necessary) changes to their policies.

Agree with you about conservatives, but that has always been the problem with conservatism, unfortunately.