Hi,

According to the behaviourist psychologists, man does 'not' have free will anyway. Everything is learned. So all the shit that the human race has carried out, was not from free will, but learnt through conditioning to the environment. Not necessarily my view, but a slight change of direction.

On another note, Erich Fromm's theory is that humans in the main are running away from or trying to escape from freedom, and only want to be enslaved (I am oversimplifying but can't be bothered to type more). So that would mean on some unconscious level, we are all trying to get back to our animal state.

Just a couple of thoughts for you both.

FR*

Hello, Freedom Rising, and welcome to the discussion.

First of all, I apologize for the delay in a reply to your well-worded statement. Because this forum is still very young (read: six members), it moves slowly at times.

There is indeed an issue to be found in the ambiguity of the term "free will". I previously re-categorized the concept as "intelligent free will" to attempt to avoid the scenario wherein the cat can chace any mouse he so chooses.

But you're right, there is another side here. Some claim that there is an inner mechanical destiny at work, by which even our higher methods of thought are really just advancements in instinct. Thereby, we live purely through instinct and only think that we have free will. Consequently, it is a comfrontational instinct that drives me to feel as if I have willingly written this response.

Erich Fromm was a new name to me, and so I did a little research, and the theories are well formulated, etc. I do believe that we have animal level urges which we not only attempt to reunite with, but also are subconciously driven by (read: frued), but I think there is a level of this drive that comes down to what we can call choice.

Free will relies upon concious, which is vague enough itself to begin with. Absolution rules the chemical level in which our brains operate. this means that there should be a guaranteed result of any given stimulus, allowing for a certain amount of pseudo-randomness. Is it true? I don't know. I'd like to think that there is a "seat of the soul" somewhere which defies such calculating logic and actually thinks in a scientifically unpredictable way.

What is your opinion, FR? Do you merely throw these ideas up in the air, or do you have personal opinions of what the truth is?