I’d say they are choices, just not concious choices.
You can demonstrate this by noticing the way different people have different reactions to the same experiences or events.
Easiest to see in people because of the greater awareness and agency but it applies to cows too because they’re smart enough to have individual personalities
I guess so. If you wanted to fake a reaction you could choose to, so the opposite must be true too, right? Choice happens at different levels, and most the choices we make happen at a level outside the conscious mind so quickly we wouldn’t register them as choices
Does a poor person have the same free will as a rich person?
Does a rat trapped in a maze have free will?
Does a veal calf have free will?
Freedom no, that’s not a binary state.
Free will? Yes. They have the capacity to react to their environment. The veal cow’s sadness and suffering are evidence of the free will to react.
Sadness and suffering aren’t choices, so where does will come in?
Ask a Buddhist if suffering is a choice. They’ll tell you “only if you desire it”.
I’d say they are choices, just not concious choices.
You can demonstrate this by noticing the way different people have different reactions to the same experiences or events.
Easiest to see in people because of the greater awareness and agency but it applies to cows too because they’re smart enough to have individual personalities
Some people have different reactions to pollen than others, is that free will too?
Yeah, totally.
I laugh at my hayfever, through the sneezing and the coughing. My husband gets angry.
So we have very different levels of “suffering” to the same experience.
Good example, thanks.
I meant I don’t have any reaction to the experience of pollen, because I’m not allergic. Is that also free will?
I guess so. If you wanted to fake a reaction you could choose to, so the opposite must be true too, right? Choice happens at different levels, and most the choices we make happen at a level outside the conscious mind so quickly we wouldn’t register them as choices