Willpower comes from “Will” which does not refer to one particular or most preferred desire but rather to the general capacity to have such desiderata and act decisively to achieve them, according to whatever criteria the willing agent applies.
One of the repeating questions discussed in the Western philosophical tradition since Christianization is the question of “free will“, and the related but more general notion of fate, which asks how will can be truly free if the actions of people have natural or divine causes which determine them, but which are not really under the control of people. The question is directly connected to discussions of what Freedom is, and also the “problem of evil“, because it brings into question whether people really cause their own acts.
In idealist models of reality, the material world is either non-existent or is a secondary artifact of the “true” world of ideas. In such worlds, it can be said that everything is an act of will. Even if you are arrested by the police, this is actually an act of your will, too; if you didn’t want it to happen, you could have decided otherwise.
And what is your option about it? Does the free will exist? If yes, how strong can it be? Do you think many people possess it? If not why? – please share your ideas as a comment.
The Poll is for those who do not like to post a comment but happy to press a button 🙂
thanks!
axinia
axinia
1000 petals by axinia 
Axinia, very interesting topic.
Free will is the individual’s desire and the intent to act, persist and reach the desire.
Example: It is because of your(Axinia – the individual person) free will, that you created this blog.
Will power is the power, energy, determination to stay on course of action. this also is related to the individual, and also how strongly the individual desires the action/outcome.
Now the interesting part.. is there free will/will power? I will answer by asking a question.. is there the individual? 🙂
well it’s a good quetion, Gpathy…if we go to the core of all things then who is this individual? and is there any? – becomes clear and mealts away 🙂
but on the surface, seriously, I think we face the question of willpower on a daily basis but we mostly never recognize it as such.
I want to wait what readers’ responsees will be and probably make another post on willpower – the topic is too vast and too important!
Very True.. As long as we recognize the individual, with individual actions, goals, aspirations, efforts and so on.. free will and will power come into existence .
The Will power is the individual’s ability to carry the actions towards the desire. It is a mental power. The power of the mind. Will power is similar to other power such as solar power, wind power, nuclear power etc. it is just like focusing such powers to get useful work done, a solar panel focuses solar energy, a windmill focuses wind energy, a nuclear reactor focuses nuclear energy. These naturally existing energies are focused and converted into power that is used to perform a work of our desire.
Similarly One may generate the will power by focusing the mental energy. The source of such energy and the mechanism of focus is varied.. It could be a with the help of a teacher, or a Guru, it could be any other individual, it could be their own past actions that generate will power, it could be meditation, it could be through affirmations.. also the source can be a divine one. There has been many sources and approaches.
Concentration and focus towards a goal, by warding off distractions has largely proven to be successful method for generating will power.
it is spiritual power which can do wonder if use properly…
thanks
I Remember once…Maybe somthing like 3 years back when I was released from the psychiatric hospital…(haha) but it’s not funny!
I went to studdy in collage, too finish my High School Diploma (Bagrut)…which I still don’t have!!! hahaha
also, not funny!……anyway…prcisasly at that time i strted too read your block!!! Axinia!
and i remember arguing (talkining) with a fallew student about free will…me too had presumptions “about the free will”…couse it makes assosiations with ego and ambitiouns…which Shri Mataji points out as dengerous..
Anyway I’ve said IF you wouldn’t have Free Will You wont be able to get up from the Bench…we were sitting you see!!! hhhhhh..stam…………coz it you choise to walk to stand to moan…anything….freewill is more conncted with th right side hhhhhmmmm…..and its like the spark in the car which agnites the machine!!1
Even if come to the topic of the Supreem in Relation too GOD ALLMEITHY HIMSELF!!!
you also have a full power of yourown freewiil…but!
God does see’s every Sin…and he does teaches sevear lossans to everyone acoording to their closenees with him…And!!!!!!!!! there must, must, must be an awe of God…It keeps you from crossing borders which are not ment to be crossed…not becouse he is such a scary affoal Punishing :))) gay (and he can be..I’m A Witness) but also becouse if you do cross byound the border….you wont like it there and you would wont to go back…and thats a headaick……to be continud…..sorryyy
Philosophers feel that science eats away at the will because the scientific mode of explanation cannot accomodate the mysterious notion of uncaused causation that underlies the will. If scientists wanted to show that people had free will, what would they look for? Some random neural event that the rest of the brain amplifies into a signal triggering behavior? But a random event doesn’t fit the concept of free will any more than a lawful one does, and could not serve as the long-sought locus of moral responsibility. We would not find someone guilty if his finger pulled the trigger when it was mechanically connected to a roulette wheel; why should it be any different if the roulette wheel is inside his skull?
Either we dispense with all morality as an unscientific superstition, or we find a way to reconcile causation (genetic or otherwise) with responsibility and free will. I think it possible that we can achieve the latter.
Free will is a particular sort of capacity of rational agents to choose a course of action from among various alternatives. Science seeks to explain why someone made the specific choice they did, or the cause of their choice. Ethics also seeks to explain the cause of a choice, but instead of using the term “cause”, the term “intention” is used. What is the cause/intention of our choices? It would seem obvious to me that they are based on minimizing suffering/maximizing contentment.
When a choice is made to minimize suffering/maximize contentment that increases another conscious beings suffering, that choice is considered immoral, or evil. If it were to increase contentment in others then it is considered moral, or good. But we can also make choices that have nothing to do with morality, or have nothing to do with other conscious beings suffering or contentment. So, this means that ethics is only about the free will choices that affect other rational agents’ suffering or contentment. Science, on the other hand isn’t satisfied with stopping there. Science wants to explore all “free will” choices and their causes. Ethics is focused on certain kinds of free will choices, not all of them.
Free will is an idealization of human beings, by human beings’ egos, that makes the ethics game playable. Looking at all of our “choices” in an objective manner rather than concentrating simply on the “choices” that affect other conscious beings, then we can see one objective reason behind all of our “choices” – the capacity of conscious beings to suffer and be content.
Because we are aware of options available to us, our ego tricks us into thinking we actually have a choice, when we are always going to perform the action that minimizes our suffering and/or maximize contentment. When someone performs an altruistic act, their view is that the suffering and contentment of the one on the receiving end of the altruistic act is tied to their own contentment and suffering, (when someone close to you dies, who is it that really suffers?) or they may expect a reciprical altruistic act in return. When we “feel” each others pain or anguish, we aren’t really feeling that person’s pain and anguish, we are feeling our own because of our ability to place ourselves in that person’s shoes.
I could go on an on but I don’t want to make this too big, but I would be interested in hearing any criticism of the idea that any “choice” we make ultimately comes down to our own capacity to be content or suffer.
this is quite an interesting idea, I think i never heard that before. Well the question of CHOICE is another mystery, I assume there are billions factors that may influence our choice and we never can really find out which one was the most important in each case.
What comes to my mind is that any choice can be finally traced to the value system – I wonder if this embibes the capacity to suffer or to enjoy?
I don’t know, it’s our desire I guess, but I am very desperate to know the answer. I have a slight hint that whatever we do is because what we desire for, desire itself changes our fate in short run and in long run as well. We face the consequence of our desire that we had in our past which is inevitable and end up saying that we cannot come out of our fate and that there is no free will. Overall it’s a desire of very pure kind that brings a change in our life if we somehow are able to maintain it’s intensity. If there is love things become a lot more easier. 🙂
Each of us have a set of preferences… which defines what we like and what we don’t. Based on it we pursue on a course of action. What we decide to do is based on this preference. and the immediate cause would be the desire. Desire is always based on our preferences. If we like to go for a walk, first there is a desire.. then there is action. Why we want to go for a walk is based on our preferences. we have the free will to decide either to go for the walk or not. and it will appear that our free will will mostly aid us in choosing what we desire. But ‘what we desire’ is not under our control! see the cyclic definition here 🙂
Those seeking an explanation will term it Maya. But the ones that are truly realized do not seek an explanation. 🙂