This post I think offers some perspective on the whole "Do we have free-will or is it all predetermined?" discussion.
I don't have any science around this, but some Indian wisdom-
What I learned from one of my mentors KN Rao (one of the advisors whose advise was sought by great leaders of India):
The famous grandsire Bheeshma Pitamaha of the Mahabharata was once asked this question regarding fate vs free-will. His answer was to liken it to a man in a boat rowing in a river. The river has a current, however man has effort. I believe his verdict was "effort is greater than destiny".
Perhaps it has to be so, because were it not, then we are just part of the clockwork creation.
PG is trying to go one level deeper in his post. Namely, are we living under the illusion that we have free will, because our free-will (which is essentially our ability to have agency over our environment) is itself a product of our desires, and now the question is are our desires our own or are they themselves determined?
It may not be possible to know the answer to this one. I think it is equivalent to something like the collatz conjecture, to which Erdos replied "Mathematics is not ready for such problems"
I don't think we are ready for such problems either.
I don't have any science around this, but some Indian wisdom-
What I learned from one of my mentors KN Rao (one of the advisors whose advise was sought by great leaders of India):
The famous grandsire Bheeshma Pitamaha of the Mahabharata was once asked this question regarding fate vs free-will. His answer was to liken it to a man in a boat rowing in a river. The river has a current, however man has effort. I believe his verdict was "effort is greater than destiny".
Perhaps it has to be so, because were it not, then we are just part of the clockwork creation.
PG is trying to go one level deeper in his post. Namely, are we living under the illusion that we have free will, because our free-will (which is essentially our ability to have agency over our environment) is itself a product of our desires, and now the question is are our desires our own or are they themselves determined?
It may not be possible to know the answer to this one. I think it is equivalent to something like the collatz conjecture, to which Erdos replied "Mathematics is not ready for such problems"
I don't think we are ready for such problems either.