Free will vs Determinism, can it vary from individual to individual?

Affable

If you subscribe to free will, determinism or a mixture of both...Can the relative levels of pre-determination and free will in a person's life vary from individual to individual? Or is that just down to subjective perception?

I feel increasingly morbid in the relationships arena and always have done. I see all this different personalities and ethnicities and looks, but I know deep down that trying to find anything different is not going to work. I just have to reluctantly sigh and succumb to determinism and that I will end up with someone just like the folks, and we will end up just like the folks, sad but true. I see other people that have bucked the trend somewhat but me no.
This left me feeling does determinism occur euqally in all men? Are variations in it just subjective perception skewed?

Joycey

Affable wrote: »

If you subscribe to free will, determinism or a mixture of both...Can the relative levels of pre-determination and free will in a person's life vary from individual to individual? Or is that just down to subjective perception?

I feel increasingly morbid in the relationships arena and always have done. I see all this different personalities and ethnicities and looks, but I know deep down that trying to find anything different is not going to work. I just have to reluctantly sigh and succumb to determinism and that I will end up with someone just like the folks, and we will end up just like the folks, sad but true. I see other people that have bucked the trend somewhat but me no.
This left me feeling does determinism occur euqally in all men? Are variations in it just subjective perception skewed?

Well if someone is a physical determinist (although i dont see how the position is tenable any more what with quantum madness) then i dont think they believe it makes any difference what school of thought you buy into, your determined whether you like it or not.

Sorry but in every thread you make you ask some kind of really broad philosophical question, which is fair enough, but then you include some supposed instance of it from your everyday life which doesnt really have anything to do with the question you are asking and just clouds things.

If you resign yourself to the fact that you are going to be like your parents (theres nothing wrong with that in and of itself, only if you dont want it to be the case but you abnegate your responsibility and act like its "determined") then of course your going to end up like them, wheres the problem?

I dont know, maybe im just prejudiced, but after some thought about the whole free will determinism thing I find that its just not an issue which interests me philosophically. Its impossible to know one way or another whether we are determined right? However if we are not free actors at the very least we have the illusion of being free, so whats the problem? Do what your gonna do. Until someone can predict exactly what your going to do then stop worrying about it, you dont know whats gonna happen next.

Aside from the philosophical issue, its pretty clear that genetic and socioeconomic factors play an exceptionally important role in shaping us and constricting our future possibilities. This, however, can be discovered empirically through research and statistics, talking about causality and stuff shouldnt come into it.

dreamlogic

OP, by accepting that something is pre-determined(in advance of the event!) you are in a sense making a choice.

If we think of our lives as some kind of narrative, then thinking that something is predetermined is often a thought process that happens afterwards as a way of explaining or accepting an outcome - it was/wasn't meant to be etc.
You can look back on your life when you're 80 and maybe feel that there was some grand plan and it couldn't have been any different.

But right now - I presume you are a young person - you are free to choose in most things, especially in the area you mention specifically - relationships. Whether you want freedom or not is another question.. Some people are uncomfortable with freedom.

Joe1919

Free will = self determinism? Perhaps freedom just means that our actions are determined by our own consciousness (self) . We are both determined and free.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatibilism_and_incompatibilism