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Comment by hcayless | Hacker News Reader

Doesn't the observation that people who believe in free will act differently than people who don't demonstrate that free will exists? I'm perfectly willing to accept that we have less free will than we think we do, and that there's a physical basis for our mental processes. But why should that mean we have no free will at all?

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No. Why would it demonstrate that? Beliefs affect actions whether or not those beliefs are accurate.

Consider: 'Does the observation that people who believe in [demons] act differently than people who don't demonstrate that [demons] exist?'

Not a good analogy. I'll put it another way: People who believe they can make decisions for themselves act differently than people who don't. Are the former not exercising some level of control over their actions? The belief itself is neither here nor there. It's the fact that it makes a difference that I think argues for the ability to control one's impulses to some degree. Is that not free will?

I think it's actually a pretty good analogy. The vast majority of people I know, regardless of whether they believe in free will or not, cannot help but act as if they do. I'm one of them. I think there's little correlation between belief and action in this particular issue, even more so than when it comes to belief in demons.

But perhaps I'm not getting exactly what you're trying to say?

It demonstrates that different internal mental states influence actions in predictable ways. I don't think that it kills the concept of free will, but I don't think that it provides evidence for it, either.

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