#PhilosophicalDebate

[anthonynysa]

Is Free Will an Illusion? A Day in the Life of Your Decisions.

A Choice: Morning Snooze

Alarm goes off, you are still half asleep, and you stretch your right hand out to reach the little button marked "Snooze." Did you do that based on your decision, or did your brain respond on autopilot by now, conditioned by excessive sleep deprivation? Neuroscientists will argue that the brain made that call something like milliseconds before consciousness kicks in. So, was it you who actually decided, or did your brain go into action because the situation called for it?

The next in line is the choice of breakfast. You stand in front of your fridge, staring at it, and caught up in thought about the meal between eggs and cereals. You choose cereals. On what basis? Probably because you saw a commercial for it last night. Or probably because your body is craving some sugar after long fasting. Or keys to choices, even if unaccepted, could already be chosen on your behalf by previous experiences and biological programming.

Commute: Driving or Your Instincts?

It is very likely that you don’t think of every little thing: pressing the gas, switching lanes, stopping at a red light. For the most part, your brain relatively runs your commute by remote, with defenses lowered. After taking the same route every day, your body seems to just know where to go. Is that really free will, or rather is it just you executing pre-programmed behaviors, like a sophisticated biological GPS?

Let’s take it further: suddenly, you decide to take a different route. Aha! That was free will. But—wait!—was it? What if your brain already calculated that the other route would probably be preferred based on past experiences of being stuck by traffic patterns or subconscious stress levels? Maybe just “randomly” picking that route was a less random choice than it originally appeared. 

Midday: The Illusion of Choices

As you come towards lunchtime, and you begin to browse a menu, so many options! You feel like you are in control-no doubt, you get to choose what to eat. Let's take this apart:

Your upbringing has influenced your preferences, your past meals, and what type of culture exposure you had as well as from whom you receive the meal.

Such cravings of your body are ruled by biological factors such as blood sugar levels and hormones.

Though there could be marketing influencing your decision-you may have seen a burger being advertised earlier and now you are leaning toward it, unknowingly.

Insofar as free will is a summing up of past experiences, biological needs, and external nudgings, how free truly are your choices?

Afternoon: Can You Will Yourself to Work Harder?

You sit at your desk, trying to concentrate. You tell yourself-I will be productive by my choice. But do you truly? Studies suggest our ability to focus is governed by neurotransmitters, brain structure, and even how little sleep we got last night. On some days, no matter how much we will ourselves to concentrate, our brains just can't comply.

Even decisions to move towards motivation are suspect: Did you choose to be motivated today, or were you happening to be on the right side of the dopamine and serotonin balance? If you had gotten less sleep or a different genetic predisposition, would you even be able to join work, have concentration, and work? 

The Night: Interaction and Subconscious Scripts

You are with friends after work. Every interaction, every joke told, every opinion given- these are conscious choices, aren't they? Or do they come from experience, social conditioning, and subtle cues of body language developed over decades by other people?

Oh, you laughed at a friend's joke. Was that a conscious choice? Or was your brain lining up all possible social cues and producing the right answer? Deeper still-were you free to decide what kind of sense of humor you liked, or was it influenced by the environment you grew up in?

Night: Do You Decide to Overthink?

As you're lying in bed, you're having multiple thoughts racing through your mind. You'll play scenes from the day, analyze conversations, plan for tomorrow-even think about whether you made "the right" choices throughout the day.

But if each decision were merely an automatic response to the past chemistry of your brain, subconscious biases, and environmental triggers, was there ever a "right" decision? Or were you just along for the ride? 

So, Is Free Will an Illusion?

Come on, who hasn't debated about that before? For centuries, this has been a subject of deliberation among philosophers. Neuroscientists are now saying that many decisions we make may occur before we become fully conscious of their existence. Determinists hold that everything we do is the set of dominoes set in motion by a preceding cause, so free will doesn't really exist at all. But far from being the correct opinion, there are some philosophers who believe that as long as one feels they have free will, their choices being tainted by biological and past effects is no sin.

So, what to take from this? Perhaps free will is an illusion. Perhaps we are only the sum of experiences, subconscious programming, and biological forces. But so what? If life were to illusion us into feeling we do have choices, maybe that's the punchline.

Come on, when your alarm rings tomorrow morning, is it or is it not a possibility you won't hit snooze? 

[sergeyshcherbakov]

What Is Truth? The Secret To Winning Any Argument

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4B6gJqyrMY What Is Truth? The Secret To Winning Any Argument #whatistruth #criticalthinking #debatetactics What is truth, and how do people manipulate it? In this mind-blowing video, we break down objective truth, how it’s formed, and the psychological tricks used in debates to shift reality. You’ll learn: ✅ How truth is shaped by logic & perception 🧠 ✅ The Bell Curve effect & why truth is an average ✅ Debate techniques to win any argument 🎯 ✅ How propaganda & misinformation distort truth This video exposes how facts can be twisted, why debates never find truth, and how you can outmaneuver any opponent with logic. ⚡ Subscribe for more deep dives into logic, psychology, and critical thinking! Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 0:17 - How to prove complete bulls*it 2:25 - What is objective truth 5:30 - Everything around is «average» 8:34 - The fox in the henhouse 13:49 - How to Win Any Argument 14:50 - Nazi Germany could become even more peaceful The video has information on What Is Truth? The Secret To Winning Any Argument. But it also tries to cover the following topics: How To Think Critically Manipulation Tactics Logical Reasoning ✅ Stay Connected To Me. 🔔 Join Sergey Shcherbakov for more content that uncovers truths and explores the world from new angles!: https://www.youtube.com/@shcherbakov.sergey?sub_confirmation=1 ✅ For Business Inquiries: shcherbakov.meaning@gmail.com ============================= ✅ Other Videos You Might Be Interested In Watching: 👉 11 favorite songs of Kim Jong Un https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjsd5dbpPgM 👉 Even mom can't be trusted: cognitive dissonance during the war https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8gYkyFj1l4 👉 How war affects the meaning of life (survey in Ukraine) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QwLZODqRNY 👉 How truth becomes propaganda. Mind-blowing power of INTERPRETATIONS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U2VLG7Jg8U 👉 A unique study in Antarctica. I didn't expect to find THIS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYLtZ4xM2gE ================================ 🔎 Related Phrases: What Is Truth, The Secret To Winning Any Argument, What Is Truth In Philosophy, How To Win Any Argument With Logic, The Bell Curve And How Truth Is Defined, Understanding Logical Fallacies In Debates, How Propaganda Manipulates Truth, The Psychology Behind Persuasion And Arguments, How To Use Debate Techniques To Win, What Is Objective Truth Vs Subjective Truth, Why People Believe In False Narratives #whatistruth #criticalthinking #debatetactics #logicalfallacies #philosophy #psychology #truthandlies #debunkingmisinformation #argumentwinning #skepticism #howtodebate #propaganda #mindmanipulation #psychologicaltricks #debatingskills #philosophicaldebates via Sergey Shcherbakov https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT2oru4CaQeeNAqBAruTFdw February 07, 2025 at 09:30AM

[ginaraemitchell]

Concerning Intellectual Suicide in The Human Race: A debate on the human condition (Human Condition Trilogy) by Massimo Fantini | 4-Star Book Review

In Massimo Fantini's "Concerning Intellectual Suicide in The Human Race", the reader is encouraged to take a moment to reflect on the author's perspectives, turning it into an experience rather than a brief story for entertainment. This is a thought-provoking tale of concepts and ideations that you may agree or disagree with, but it certainly gives you much to contemplate. Deep thought about a book is an admirable goal. #PhilosophicalDebate #LiteraryFiction #BookReview #MassimoFantini #KindleUnlimited #NetGalley #ConcerningIntellectualSuicideinTheHumanRace

Concerning Intellectual Suicide in The Human Race: A Debate on the Human Condition (Human Condition Trilogy) by Massimo Fantini | 4-Star Book Review First Thoughts: The reader is encouraged to take a moment to reflect on the author’s perspectives, turning it into an experience rather than a brief story for entertainment. This is a thought-provoking tale of concepts and ideations that you may…

[vidamouremortem]

It’s hard to build boundaries when you believe you should do what you love and pursue what makes you love harder. Sometimes it’s people that are somewhere else in their process, And everything gets hazy and cloudy and grey and you don’t know which way. Because if you run from him does that mean your running to love or away from love? A. F. - - #buildingboundaries #beingafraid #love #philosophicaldebate #lovepoem #figureitout #infj #infp #philosophy #philosophicaldilemma #writerslife #writersden #writersofinstagram #writersnetwork #poem #poems #poetry #writersblock #writing #words #blogger #vidamourmortem (at Los Angeles, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxYaoUTlq_5/?igshid=1kizvbxfofq0w

[scrumptiouskidprofessorfish]

A reeeeee is a frog noise. . . . I mean that's what it literally is. - #trith#reeee#contemplate#showerthought#contemplate#whenthepartysover#crymeariver#riverinthedesert#persona5#clouds#majesticpicture#philosphy#arguments#philosophicaldebate#intelligence#benches#life#flowoftime https://www.instagram.com/p/Bycu8GIH_HY/?igshid=6uf3m299xvu5

[justwierzba]

The Sims 2 Playable Tutorial

Hello everyone,

I created this blog pretty recently. I've no idea what I'm doing so I accept any tips.

But anyway…

Quite some time ago I felt like playing with Tutorial sims but I wasn't sure if there's conversion. I found one but then I realised it's gonna have clones and other stuff, as it's put right from game. Then I just thought I'm gonna make my own recreation. I decided to make it fully playable, without useless and/or corrupted data, and without the tutorial sim clones.

I am not too good at recreating houses, so I downloaded a really well made recreations from MTS - 3 Sim houses were made by fiona13 (1)(2)(3) and Creative Textures were recreated by PhilosophicalDebate.

I made this on Ultimate Collection, so it's probably required to work.

Download:

Main Hood

Subhood

Things that are different between the original tutorial and my recreation:

some minor stuff like file numbers, cuz it's a recreation and not conversion

name (it's now The Tutorial, cuz if it was just Tutorial then the game would break it a little)

This one has a subhood version if anyone wants it

there is only one set of Tutorial couple because I didn't want clones. They live in the New Gameplay house

As there by default are 2 Tutorial Janes and 3 Tutorial Joes with different interests, I gave them the interests from New Gameplay version

Joe and Jane have simple descriptions now (copied from Castaway Stories version of tutorial)

Family and Neighbourhood descriptions are copied from The Sims Wiki. These are just some info copied from their respective page.

some outfits may be inaccurate, because I couldn't really check them while making (everyday outfit is how it should be tho)

everyone who has parents (so our Tutorial sims and their parents) now have recessive genes. I chose what made sense in my opinion.

all ancestors have data now and are safe to resurrect (used Carrit's recreations cuz I love these)

Ancestral sims have random interests as I thought it won't really affect them anyway

Playables and their ancestors have full set of memories. I looked at all the tutorial sims on sims wiki and put their memories together, fixed order, and added what's missing. Decided to give ancestors basic memories as well.

I decided to set the Tutorial episode pictures as neighbourhood storytelling

NPCs dont have their thumbnail pictures, but it's not a problem as the game will generate them new ones once it needs them

If anyone had mismatched genetics now they're fixed as I didn't really check if someone does so, so I gave them the genes according to their look

I'm really unsure if all NPCs worked how they should as some of them were in Default bin but now they all should work just fine

Andrew Todd has a different outfit in my version than in game. It doesn't change anything about his character, he's still a firefighter but now blue

Social Worker NPC now has a normal Social Worker name instead of 'Social Worker Social Worker'

[blondebabybbbb-girl]

On one hand... If we killed every person that was a complete ass... The world would be a better place... On the other hand... If we did that... our species would die out...