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So, you know that feeling when you make a decision, like deciding to go to a concert, and you’re pretty convinced you could have picked something else? Well, some smart philosophers say, “Hold on a minute!” According to them, this whole idea of free will, where you make choices all on your own, is just a big, fat illusion. They argue that our decisions are either totally predictable based on what happened before or just random accidents.
But, here’s the twist: our gut feelings don’t agree with these brainy philosophers. We could just brush off our instincts as being a bit off, but psychology says, “Hey, wait a second, sometimes our hunches are right!” Like when you take a wild guess on a test, and it turns out to be the right answer. Or when you get that weird feeling that something’s not quite right even before you figure out what’s wrong.
Now, there’s a gang of philosophers who’ve decided to dive into this by using science. They’re called experimental philosophers. They go out and ask people what they think about tricky stuff, like whether our choices are tied to what happened in the past or whether they’re totally free. Turns out, nobody in the world agrees that their choices are predetermined.
But here’s the kicker: Psychologists tell us that our unconscious mind plays a sneaky role in our choices. They did this experiment where they tricked people into being rude without them even realizing it. Participants who saw rude words in a word puzzle were more likely to interrupt someone later on. But when they were asked about it, they had no clue that those word puzzles messed with their behavior.
Now, here’s the irony: because our unconscious mind has so much control over us in other ways, we can’t fully trust it when it comes to the idea of free will. We still can’t say for sure whether our choices are set in stone, but our gut feeling isn’t giving us a great reason to believe in total free will.
Now, these experimental philosophers aren’t just about free will. They’re also tackling other big questions, like what makes you “you” from childhood to adulthood or whether morality is as solid as math. They’re even diving into the deep waters of consciousness. Some scientists say consciousness is just neurons firing in your brain, but it feels weird to think that the taste of a Durian fruit is just brain patterns.
Our instincts about consciousness are triggered by certain things, like seeing eyes and observing goal-directed behavior. But it turns out that even insects, which have eyes and seem to have a purpose, might not have the brainpower for feelings. And robots can be programmed to act like they have feelings, even though they’re basically clueless machines.
So, what’s the takeaway from all this? Well, it turns out that a lot of our philosophical debates, whether it’s about free will or consciousness, often start with our everyday gut feelings. These experimental philosophers say that if we can understand why we feel certain things about these big ideas, we might realize that sometimes our hunches aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
