Hello everyone, I am Anthony. Welcome to my channel. Today I want to talk to you about an interesting philosophical topic: Do we really have free will?

In the past few years, many friends have told me that at a certain stage in life, I will be immersed in such a sense of nothingness and cannot extricate myself. Just think, I am just genetically, or it is determined by physiological mechanisms, no free will.

For example, the person feels that his motives and desires, even the will itself, it's just a series of neural signals, electrochemical reactions. It's just the complex interaction of various hormones.

What kind of person will I become? Am I depressed or anxious? My susceptibility, it seems like it's all written in my genes. That is, the arrangement and combination of DNA base sequences.

My self-awareness is nothing more than, it's just an illusion and hallucination evolved by humans. Can all be reduced to biology and evolution.

When one realizes these, he will feel that everything about him is destined. I can't change anything. Think of this, you will feel a deep sense of emptiness and sadness.

And because of this sense of nothingness, seems to be based on science, therefore, it seems even more unshakable and unchangeable.

Then this video, from the perspective of philosophy and science, let’s explore this view and try to propose a new understanding of oneself, saving yourself.

Before the video starts, let me say, if you have anything you want to discuss with me and consulting topics, you can contact my email to make an appointment. So let's get back to today's topic.

First we say, the emptiness and sadness of the parties involved, it's a feeling of being determined. He saw a chain of cause and effect. Then realize, I am just a screw in the chain of cause and effect. I am not the initiator, the initiated. I am not the chooser, the chosen ones.

Then, the parties feel, the self is nothing but an illusion that is manipulated.

However, if people’s self-awareness, it can really be completely reduced to a neural mechanism or gene, in other words, genes are everywhere. Dominant entities and entities. Then when a person realizes this, why does he feel pain?

We say that if he fully believes, I am just a pure determined person. So, he should have fallen naturally like an apple under the laws of physics. No worries, shame or pain about whereabouts. Even feel happy and joyful about the non-existence of the self. Because it means, his self merges into some more universal entity.

We know, this idea that the self is an illusion, in fact, it is similar to many Eastern religions. For example, the Confucianism of preserving the principles of heaven and eliminating human desires, harmony between Man and Nature.

Hinduism's unity of Brahman and Atman, Buddhist Nirvana, etc. This Confucian way of thinking, we have discussed this many times before, everyone is familiar with.

The Realm of 'Brahman and Atman' in Hinduism, in fact, it is also a kind of negation and extinction of self-consciousness. My body, emotions, and thoughts are all illusions. The real goal is to abandon these illusions, attaining Oneness with Brahman. That is the Sanskrit word moksha. This word means liberation. It means that life has escaped from the cycle of life and death, and all kinds of self-inflicted pain.

Hinduism is about abandoning all desires and consciousness, considered sacred. For example, there are a large number of ascetics in Indian society. They hope to pass through painful practice to achieve this spiritual liberation. So much so that every year some Indians starve to death.

Buddhism has similar ideas. That is, we believe that the root of suffering is ego. Human form, feeling, perception, volition and consciousness. There is no permanent, autonomous and unchanging ontology. It is the harmony of cause and effect. All phenomena are temporary combinations of causes and conditions.

If my five aggregates, none of them has reality, I am not an independent entity. It's just a fiction, just a named combination. Even I want to achieve Nirvana, that is still a deformation of ego. So I broke these obsessions. There will be no worries and fears in your heart. Only then can one truly achieve Nirvana.

We are now going to experience this state, it should be more difficult. If you want to experience it briefly, you can go watch a Korean movie, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring. In the Movies, the flow of time is not linear. It is cyclical.

The film uses repeated spatial arrangements and the same events. For example, posting spells on doors, ringing bells, and rowing boats. Create a mood of eternal reincarnation. After reading, you will feel like a hundred years is just a moment. People don't need a sense of meaning. No need for redemption. Only a complete nothingness and tranquility remain. Let's get back to our topic.

Through the above discussion, we can find, the belief that genes are the truer entity, although it looks different from Eastern religions, but they all believe that the self is an illusion. It is the product of some higher entity.

However, the person involved was distressed to discover this fact. Confusion, fear. Instead of feeling relaxed, liberated, and free. These negative emotions, always accompanied by this consciousness. This means, before I had this deterministic understanding, I actually already thought, people shouldn't be determined like this. A person's self should have a stable meaning. But I can't find any evidence to support my. So I feel pain.

This shows that the premise of 'self-meaning', it is buried deep in the experience. It is not a logical judgment. It is an experience given by nature. Before I learned determinism, already exists. When I feel sad about determinism, and hold on to the experience itself, I will find, this sad experience, so direct and unquestionable. It itself, it is through what Husserl called inner perception that, what I perceive, it does not require a medium. No reliance on senses.

A person's self, the inner sense of the experience that is present in this moment. And you have a question about genetic determinism, or the cognition of physiological determinism. It is learned later in life. It only appeared in your consciousness later. It is no more genuine and fundamental than your sadness. And, this knowledge may still be changed in the future. It is developing.

Certainly, you could also argue that, my sadness about determinism, it is still a neural mechanism. The bottom line, or is it made by genes? Another, more deceptive illusion. However, you can also trace back, when you realize, when the proposition 'Even your sadness can be restored', you will be interested in this proposition, feeling a deeper sense of sadness. This can be traced back infinitely. You will find, this sad experience, always appears earlier than the empirical explanation, more original. With unshakable insight. This just shows, the presence of the self cannot be reduced or deconstructed.

Another angle, it can also help us understand this problem. We can find, whether we are a genetic determinist or not, regardless of our cultural level, what religion do you believe in? In reality, we always assume that others have free will.

For example, when we are in public, seeing a person hit another person with his fist, the reason why no one would beat him up, it comes down to his fists and arms. Indeed, without his arms, he can't complete the act of beating someone. But this is obviously not the ultimate reason for this matter.

He also needs the muscle strength to throw a punch, and the nerve structures that innervate the muscles. But these cannot be the real reasons. It is just the physiological basis for completing this behavior.

If the attacker says, it's my neural mechanism. My amygdala did this. It's not me. I think, no one, can accept and agree with this statement.

What if we continue to trace back? For example, why is his amygdala active? This may be because, regulated by hormones such as adrenaline. The level of adrenaline is related to the activity of the enzyme. The activity of the enzyme depends on the expression of its gene. Why does he have this gene? And why his genes are expressed this way. This can be traced back to his parents. A gene mutation in an ancestor.

At last, we can even trace it back to the Big Bang. It was the initial particle collision that caused all this. But this is obviously ridiculous.

The reason why everyone always wants to beat him up, tracing back to the person himself. He wanted to do it himself. This 'itself' is actually his self. And this self must not be some kind of material entity. Because if he is a material entity, then we can always trace back to his causal factors. That is to ask who pushed him.

In his book Small Logic, Hegel criticized, at that time, there was a popular idea in Europe, it is a purely mechanical method of cognition. For example, the organic process of blood circulation, it's just the contraction of the heart. Hegel said, this formalism, in the search for sufficiently specific conceptual knowledge, satisfied with abstract grounds only.

Hegel said, this formalism, in the search for sufficiently specific conceptual knowledge, satisfied with abstract grounds only.

A more profound way of thinking, is not satisfied with staying at the causal. To achieve the purpose. Light, heat, moisture, etc. Although it should be regarded as the driving factor of plant growth, however, it should not be regarded as the purpose of plant growth. Because the purpose of plant growth, it is the concept of the plant itself.

Certainly, Hegel's thinking, used in natural sciences, it is risky and inappropriate. But its application in the spiritual realm is very profound.

Therefore, no matter what we know, do you agree that humans have free will? In reality, we always assume that others have free will. This free will is a cause. That is the initial reason. It can't be traced back any further. It can independently start a causal chain. Only free will, can be the ultimate bearer of an action.

Certainly, you can say that he did bad things. Because he suffered some kind of force majeure. For example, being instructed or coerced by someone. Or deceived and deceived. For example, he has PTSD. Suffered some kind of childhood trauma, etc. But when we explain it this way, we still think, he has no ability to exercise his freedom. But this shows, we always default, one person, should be free to decide their own behavior.

More importantly, all these external psychological explanations, does not have, the kind of determinism in natural sciences such as physics. This brings us to another topic. That is, human behavior is reflexive.

When a person realizes a certain psychological law, even if his previous hundred actions, all are in accordance with the rules, then he may deviate from this rule next time. Physics experiments can control variables. Achieving repeatability. As long as you do the experiment under the same conditions, the same result can be obtained.

But human emotions, memories, and motivations are not repeatable. Even if you can find some statistically significant, high probability behavior pattern. For example, a person has suffered some kind of emotional trauma. He may be in an intimate relationship. Showing avoidance and withdrawal. But this can only be said to be an open. Understanding the framework of the problem. There is no natural law at all. That rigid causal mechanism. Psychology is therefore interpretive. Rather than deductive.

You can follow the laws of mathematics and physics. Calculate the speed of an object. But, you can't judge a person by the trauma he or she has suffered. Encountered some setbacks. Just like doing math problems. Calculate what he will do tomorrow. You can only learn through experience, approach him in a situational way. Understand him as a subject rather than an object.

As, in the video we talked about statistical thinking. Positivism and natural science. It needs to be built on a series of observable. Above the operational standards. However, when it comes to human spiritual phenomena, this kind of thinking often leads to a superficial.

In positivism, objective laws do not depend on the subjective experience of the observer. Independent existence. It can be verified by experiments. However, in terms of human psychological reality, objective criteria themselves have no inherent meaning. It is through each person's inner experience, emotional needs, and value assignment. This phenomenon of subjective significance being more important than objective criteria. It's actually very common.

Even from the perspective of positivism, we can't deny, the key role of subjective feelings and meaning in the human spiritual realm. For example, social support theory tells us, individuals’ subjective experience and perception of social support. Often more than those that are quantifiable, visible social support. Playing a bigger role in growth.

Statistical thinking doesn’t focus on what’s underneath the numbers. The unique intrinsic meaning given by the individual. Even think that these factors are not scientific enough. The depth and uniqueness of individual experience. Considered as a factor that needs to be eliminated. The result is statistical thinking. Only focus on the most external standards. And quantifiable indicators. These statistics may be entirely correct. But it may be meaningless to the parties involved.

For example, I often see people criticizing the determinism of the original family. That is, as long as a person puts his current pain. Attributed to the original family or some other trauma. It's just shirking one's responsibility. It will make you even more powerless. This statement, it completely confuses the difference between nature and spirit.

When one tries to see through the lens of trauma, understand your present moment. This does not mean shirking your responsibility. Instead, it is an active and positive modeling behavior. It is a process of reconstructing one’s personal narrative. An object has no consciousness of its own. It can only be pushed. But in the spiritual realm, many things once you start to realize. Revealed from the unconscious. This consciousness itself, it is already a change and action. As we just said, the human spirit is reflexive. You can't use that kind of mechanical thinking. Directly applied.

Kant said this in his 'Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals' and Critique of Practical Reason. In these two books, this refutes the attempt to find. The search for evidence of free will. He believed that free will could not be scientifically proven. It can't be falsified.

People have freedom. People have no freedom. Both of these views are actually self-consistent. It's all self-consistent.

But as long as you cannot deny human freedom in theory, so imagine yourself to be free. Because if a person says 'I am free', he can choose to believe in determinism. You can also choose to reject it. No matter what he chooses, they all embody the concept of freedom in action. More inclusive and explanatory.

So far, we responded to determinism mainly from a philosophical perspective. Next video, let’s talk about this from a scientific perspective. Why genetic determinism is false. And why it seems so convincing. That's all for today's video.

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