You don't have free will, but don't worry.

Sabine is brutal in how she gives "certain" types of philosophers, who keep on insisting that their Ph.D. in philosophy makes them some sort of universal scientific authority, a painful wedgie. I love it!

You say "don't worry" as if I have a choice!

Defendant: "The particles made me do it! Judge: "Ten years!"

My reaction to realizing free will was an illusion, if anything, was to get mad less often--particularly at people.

The fact that I'm sitting here eating these cookies after working out for an hour tells me all I need to know about free will.

"you're not here to make the choice. Youve already made it. You're here to understand WHY you made it." -The Oracle

When I was asked as a child “what do you want to be when you grow up”, I’d always enthusiastically reply “I want to be a robot”. Today I found out I’m a biological robot. Mission accomplished!

Spinoza says we think we are free because we are conscious of out desires but unconscious of their causes.

I wrote a paper arguing this standpoint in a philosophy class years ago and people thought I was crazy. Thank you for the validation!!!

Interestingly Roger Penrose has spent a lot of time trying to convince the world that free will exists. I had the pleasure of attending a lecture series he gave many years ago, not long after his somewhat controversial book The Emperors New Mind came out, where he expounded on his ideas, many of which he didn't really give full voice to in his book. The overwhelming insight was that he is a closet hidden variable physicist, and he believes that free will exists in part because quantum processes are not random, but have some deeper structure, one that can be tied back into the physical world. (As an example of an indeterminate but not random process he, of course, gave Penrose tiling as an example.) I think there is a critical point to be made here. An assertion that free will cannot exist because quantum processes are truly random is implicitly asserting this randomness as a basic axiom, not just an interpretation of QM. One can argue this one forever, but it isn't yet an accepted axiom of physics, and it isn't hard to find physicists who, in their hearts, don't believe in it. Personally I won't make a call on this. We clearly don't yet know enough to assert this as undeniable truth. There is nothing that says we have to make a choice about it either.

I have felt this my whole life, but did not have the words for it. Thank you so much, this video gives me such a feeling of clarity.

I always considered free will to be silly, but I’m not an intellectual so I just thought I was just explaining away things to make myself feel better. For example, I’ve been an addict my entire life. When I was little, I never thought I wanted to be the guy in my family everyone talks poorly about. Then I realized I was the guy everyone talked poorly about before I ever took a drug or a drink. I didn’t realize I grew up in an abusive home until I turned 40 when I went to therapy. I thought good parenting including instilling fear and guilt and shame to make sure I followed the right path and that I was too weak to adhere to it. As I looked back at my life, I realized I never made a single decision with free will. I made decisions based on what I thought would please my parents. It put me in a life I found unbearable and against my true nature. Its caused mental health issues. My head is always loud with my inner monologue giving me unsolicited advice from the perspective of everyone I know. I willing took alcohol and drugs, but it quieted the noise. I didn’t want to do it. I felt like I needed to just hear my own thoughts again. I know it sounds like I’ve spent my life looking for something to blame, but I can’t help think that if I were raised by intelligent parents who taught me how to like and even love myself instead of being told how much of an inconvenience and a problem I was, maybe I wouldn’t have been an inconvenience or a problem. Mental health problems are not free will.

Came for the clarity, stayed for the brutality.

“You can chose to believe that reductionism is not correct.” Apparently not.

Well, I recently discovered you and I’m thrilled that I have. I’ve ordered two copies of your new book so I have someone to talk about it with. And while I may not have come to the conclusion by myself, or for myself, I do have the ability to make decisions, thank you for your videos they keep my brain afire.

Got so high at work one time that I literally felt like I was outside of my body just watching myself do tasks. It was scary at first, but once you let go and realize its gonna be ok, then you basically just start to enjoy the ride.

Most of Sabine’s videos are about the stuff we all talk about in somebody’s kitchen at 2am in the morning as we refuse to leave the party lol

First video of the morning, and I am going back to bed. I will be restarting the day with cat videos. Thank you, that is all.

This was very freeing. I’m not going to become a terrible person, but I will be less mad about misfortune and to take more joy in my successes and less or no regret in my failures while keeping the lessons learned. Thank you! ✨💎✨

Excellent analysis. I also love your sense of humour Sabine!