This aligns well with some of my thoughts on free will. That though I cannot control what I desire as long as I am not constrained by outside forces I am acting of my own will.
This of course is compatibilism[0] which I nearly instantaneously gravitated towards conceptually during my philosophy minor some moons ago, though I don't entirely agree with it. I would add that free will is the ability to act in accordance with one's desires AND choose how to act within a limited possibility space presented by previous determined circumstance towards those desires.
I disagree with your prioritizing comment though, a simple test here is do I put off video games to work on my own projects, the answer is yes, even though I in the immediacy maybe more intensely desire to play video games. Humans can delay gratification for larger payouts later on, which if we could not consciously do then I personally would probably do nothing with my life besides the basic biologic urges and whatever gives me the strongest immediate dopamine hit.
> a simple test here is do I put off video games to work on my own projects, the answer is yes, even though I in the immediacy maybe more intensely desire to play video games
I’m not sure how this contradicts my prioritizing comment. When you do put off video games, you are not changing the order of your desires, you are revealing how they are already ordered.
>Humans can delay gratification for larger payouts later on, which if we could not consciously do then I personally would probably do nothing with my life besides the basic biologic urges and whatever gives me the strongest immediate dopamine hit.
That's basically living with ADHD - so about 2% to 7% of all people have a lot less free will than the rest.
I'm a physicalist, there's nothing in my view that says biological disorders can't affect the effectiveness of the software, free will must in my view be an effect provided by our bodies and a disorder can surely remove it.
Just as sure as if you were lobotomized, you'd lose free will.
Edit: Plus upon re reading this and not just giving a two second flippant response, you did not clearly read my reply (which I ironically did not then read yours correctly either). I was talking about the ability to prioritize desires, not free will itself on the part you quoted.
Just to be clear, I'm not trying to argue with you - just trying to share an observation from my own life.
The experience of the inner monologue in my brain not being able to control what the rest of my body is doing when not on meds sure does feel like a crippled down version of free will
This of course is compatibilism[0] which I nearly instantaneously gravitated towards conceptually during my philosophy minor some moons ago, though I don't entirely agree with it. I would add that free will is the ability to act in accordance with one's desires AND choose how to act within a limited possibility space presented by previous determined circumstance towards those desires.
I disagree with your prioritizing comment though, a simple test here is do I put off video games to work on my own projects, the answer is yes, even though I in the immediacy maybe more intensely desire to play video games. Humans can delay gratification for larger payouts later on, which if we could not consciously do then I personally would probably do nothing with my life besides the basic biologic urges and whatever gives me the strongest immediate dopamine hit.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatibilism