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We play "armchair gods" as we sit here and philosophise, but these are breif interim moments of our humdrum mesoscale lives.

In the domain of managing our household, relationships, health, and finance, what does it matter whether or not we have freewill? (And other philosophical questions)

It's like learning about cosmology. What does the Riemannian curvature of spacetime have to do with making coffee and going about my day?

I understand it's important on one level. I'm asking the question as it's stated. I'm not saying that my opinion is that it doesn't matter. I actually have a feeling that it does. But feelings aren't reliable. I'm lookiy for a reasonable answer. Maybe the answer is that it doesn't matter or maybe it matters in a way I don't understand but would like to.

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I've never believed that I didn't have free-will, but if that was the case then I'd feel powerless and see every calamity the fault of something else without a chance of fixing it myself. It will be like a prison.

If I have an accident I would say why did God/Universe force me into an accident and take away my child…I wouldn't have to consider the fact that I was eating potato chips. Because it’s always his fault. Even if it’s my own fault, I can’t think that way, because my will is not the cause.

Also if something good happens, I can't say it was me who did it. I won't feel happy, cause I'd feel like a puppet.

Honey
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Many of the basic assumptions we make in society are founded in the assumption of agency -- that of ourselves and others. Mind you this only calls for the appearance of agency.

The philosophy of freewill explores the question of "what if we actually have this agency we think we have?" From an armchair philosopher point of view, this can be a very powerful tool to reduce extremely complex empirical approaches into simpler ontological claims.

You can indeed go through life without believing you have free will, but that begs the question of what does "belief" mean in the world defined without freewill?

Of course, I believe the question of how we apply philosophy in our lives is a much broader concept than just that of the freewill question you posed.

Cort Ammon
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  • -1: The appearance of agency is not agency but may be a way that a totalitarian government wants to deceive its population about what the reality of freedom actually is. – Mozibur Ullah Jul 17 '19 at 05:38
  • @MoziburUllah And yet we can still explore the question "what if we actually have the agency we think we have" We can explore that question, and the implications that come from it. This can be done whether or not any particular government institution is behind it or not. Indeed, it is done regularly by nearly every person alive. – Cort Ammon Jul 17 '19 at 05:39
  • I think if anyone was living in such a world they would have more serious questions to explore, especially after the veil of deception had been torn away. – Mozibur Ullah Jul 17 '19 at 05:42
  • Indeed we find the use for exploring the limits like this all the time. Engineers constantly explore idealized models of things which cannot possibly be real and exist in real life, but they are close enough to things that do exist to provide useful analysis. – Cort Ammon Jul 17 '19 at 05:42
  • @MoziburUllah I do believe that line of thinking is well beyond the scope of "armchair philosophers considering health, finance, and relationships" – Cort Ammon Jul 17 '19 at 05:43
  • I think an engineer discovering that he lives in a totalitarian regime ought to have better things to do than to patch up the veil of deception, over and over again. One might call him an engineer of deception. – Mozibur Ullah Jul 17 '19 at 05:46
  • @MoziburUllah Does that line of reasoning fit within the OP's question? – Cort Ammon Jul 17 '19 at 05:47
  • It fits within my critique of your answer. – Mozibur Ullah Jul 17 '19 at 05:48
  • @MoziburUllah Well then I suppose that gives me a solid way to venture a guess as to why you chose to downvote, and whether said act was an act of freewill or not. – Cort Ammon Jul 17 '19 at 05:49
  • There are books on psycho-pathology and con-men that are worth looking at in relation to free-will/deception that you might find interesting to look at too. – Mozibur Ullah Jul 17 '19 at 05:51
  • @MoziburUllah This does suggest that if one does not have philosophy, one must live in eternal fear of con-men deceiving one into thinking one has freewill. With philosophy, one can begin to ask the question, "is it so bad to have said deception?" – Cort Ammon Jul 17 '19 at 05:59
  • Except that few - if any - philosophers feel it worth addressing such a question. That kind of question - which I’m not going to dignify - as a philosophical question is as to true philosophy as astrology is to astronomy. – Mozibur Ullah Jul 17 '19 at 06:04
  • @MoziburUllah I'll let you now if I encounter any "true philosophy" on my journeys! It sounds like I have yet to encounter any yet! – Cort Ammon Jul 17 '19 at 06:33