Dont Bullshit. Just Think.

Maybe I Was Wrong

Of course I was wrong. I’m wrong about stuff all the time. But that’s not the point here. Maybe I was wrong to tell you that free will is an illusion. Because believing in free will is correlated with working harder. Realizing that there is no free will might make people give in.

Of course that’s exactly the wrong thing to do. If I give in and stop caring, I’ll never discover what live has in store for me. That I can’t do. I’m way too curious. The fact that we don’t have free will doesn’t mean that we can’t rock the boat.

We should take care to not change our behavior too much by knowing it isn’t free. One thing we can do is nudge ourselves into better behaviors (e.g. by creating habits). What we have to change, however, are the laws that govern our society. We have to recognize that without free will, some laws and rules do not make sense any more. For example: In a world without free will, there is no justification for a system of justice based on punishment.


Published July 9th, 2012 by Sebastian — All PostsImpressum