this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2024
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.
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I see you haven't met me. I will walk to the refridgerator, grab a bottle of lemonaide, grab a single sock, and grab a hot wheels car. Then I'll go back to my seat with these items, and ask nobody at all "Wait.....why the hell did I grab these things?"
I don't do things because I want to, or need to, or even because it makes any logical sense.
I just do things. I have no idea what I'm doing half the time.
Hey, are you going to eat that ghost?
I was just thinking that there is a third option. You certainly can do things you don’t need to or even d want to.
An extreme example would be all the various kinds of mental issues. Even phobias count. You don’t need to be afraid of balloons, nor do you want to. However, someone suffering from such a phobia just can’t help themselves.
Either you have to or you want to.
Having a phobia is not something people chose to have, so no freedom there. If a person is afraid of spiders they then want to avoid them at all costs. That aligns with the statement in the title.
Depends on the way you define “have to”. If we take the loosest possible definition, as long as literally anything makes you do it, you have to do it. Could be another human, laws of physics or even your own brain doing stuff you don’t want it to do. In that case, I agree with you. However, people usually aren’t that loosey-goosey with their definitions.
Oh, just realized, this definition also encompasses the case where you want to do stuff. It’s all in the same category at this point. People do stuff because they have to.
Well I don't believe in free will so in my view what ever you do is because you couldn't have done otherwise. In that sense you "have to" do everything that you do because doing something else would mean breaking free from the laws of physics and deterministic universe.
Whay ever makes someone do the thing in the first place is what would make them do it again, and again, and again no matter how many times they rewind the clock and try again. You'd need to be able to change the order of the universe to break free from the causal chain.
That description of your process reminds me of this video on consciousness, and how the creator describes how he has no inner monolog, or even conscious thought of some of his actions, and instead it's like a black box that he can query. Is your experience similar to that?
That doesn't imply any kind of freedom either. It's what you wanted to do wether consciously or not.
Sounds like you're categorically defining everything someone does without being forced as "want". But who is the "you" that wanted to do it if you're not conscious of that want? Do I breathe while in a coma because I want to? Do I stop breathing because I want to? Or does my low-level biology force me in those cases?