Freewill?

[blink_babe13]

We were debating this in class today, can a person have completly free will? Some say that you can be FORCED to do something that you don't want to but i disagree. Even if someone is holding a gun to your head then you still have the choice between giving into their demands or choosing death, right? Ok you woudln't want to choose either but it's still your choice! would like to hear your insights!!

[Loosehead]

It's not a choice, if you are being forced, simple!

[Lonnie]

Loosehead is right, but it would also depend on a number of things, the strength of your willpower, your tolerance to pain, your will to live, your love for somebody or some things, and those are just a few of the variables involved.

[noxlumos]

Yes it's still your choice, however basic human nature governs certain decisions in certain situations. you may be compelled to make choices you would never wish to make but that is a different thing, that's the constraints of the situaiton at any given time and the variables for that are immense, but yes everything within those confines is ultimately your choice.

[bondy]

This is a very complex question. Some psychologists believe that a certain percentage of people will do what they are told (for example in Nazi Germany) even if they know it is wrong. This is peer pressure. But also that a percentage will not. I think there is phenomenon known as Milgrams 37 . Milgram was a psychologist whose experiments found thar 37per cent of people would go aginst the grain and do what they thought was right instead of toeing the line. But you'd need to check this up to be sure.

[Goodsoulette]

if someone was holding a gun to my head and was making me or trying to make me do something that would hurt another I wouldnt do it.

[Ethmer]

As a general rule, no!

To completely have free will would require one to be living alone without the influence of others. However, this still wouldn't be completely free will because they would have to be reacting to the forces of nature.

Choice, because of external factors, is not the same as free will.

The last time a person had completely free will was when they were an entity in the non-life realm choosing which body they were going to incarnate into. There they could choose based simply upon their own wants, desires and goals.