To All God's Children,
-->Freedom within Limit: Free will – do we have it? The philosophical debate in psychology is that we have the opposite of free will called “determinism”. When people are told that they have no free will then they tend to abide by fewer morals. Isn’t it their will that allows them to act immorally? On the other hand, it may be my will to fly, but I am limited by my physical state. I believe there is freedom within limit. Individuals born with full consciousness, or the capacity to make their own decisions, possess free will. Those with partial or no consciousness (e.g. mentally handicapped or people resting in a vegetative state) have no or very little free will. Free will is relative to our consciousness.
Showing posts with label determinism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label determinism. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Depressive Realism
To All God's Children,
-->Most people fall victim to the “Happy man’s illusion” or the optimism bias when one believes that have control over their fate and always find a positive outcome. Feelings of losing control can bring depression. There’s even a debate in psychology between the assumption of “free will” (i.e. we decide our fate) versus “determininsm” (i.e. which is that everything is already predetermined for us). I believe that we have free will, but within limit. It’s my will to fly, but I do not have the capacity; it may be a person who was in a car accident’s will to walk, but she cannot because of paralyzation. The ability to make deliberate decisions using the “conscious control” of our forebrains is the free will of humans who have no brain damage.
There was a study done once on depressed versus nondepressed people. From what I can remember, they asked the participants to use a remote control to move a spotlight projected on a wall around on the screen. Nondepressed people reported more control over the light although the researchers set up a hoax and the light did not move at all. The depressed people recognized that they had no control and thus were more realistic about their control. In other words, nondepressed people have an illusion of controlling their environment that nondepressed people do not have. This is depressive realism. So to discover truth is to discover sadness.
-->Most people fall victim to the “Happy man’s illusion” or the optimism bias when one believes that have control over their fate and always find a positive outcome. Feelings of losing control can bring depression. There’s even a debate in psychology between the assumption of “free will” (i.e. we decide our fate) versus “determininsm” (i.e. which is that everything is already predetermined for us). I believe that we have free will, but within limit. It’s my will to fly, but I do not have the capacity; it may be a person who was in a car accident’s will to walk, but she cannot because of paralyzation. The ability to make deliberate decisions using the “conscious control” of our forebrains is the free will of humans who have no brain damage.
There was a study done once on depressed versus nondepressed people. From what I can remember, they asked the participants to use a remote control to move a spotlight projected on a wall around on the screen. Nondepressed people reported more control over the light although the researchers set up a hoax and the light did not move at all. The depressed people recognized that they had no control and thus were more realistic about their control. In other words, nondepressed people have an illusion of controlling their environment that nondepressed people do not have. This is depressive realism. So to discover truth is to discover sadness.
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