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Thoughts and free will

שו”תCategory: philosophyThoughts and free will
asked 4 years ago

Hello Rabbi
If thoughts simply arise in the mind, and there is a voice in our head that simply says things
For that matter, if we are learning something, thoughts suddenly arise that are not related to learning, and we are not the ones who create these thoughts.
So if we are unable to control our thoughts, and we do not know what they will be before they arise, where is the freedom of our will?


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מיכי Staff answered 4 years ago
I didn’t understand the question. The fact that thoughts sometimes arise on their own doesn’t mean that this is always the case. Beyond that, what about the arising of thoughts and the decisions of what to do?!

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לוי replied 4 years ago

I wonder where our freedom is if we don't generate our own thoughts, nor can we anticipate them.
Why does this even happen this way?
Are thoughts that pop up out of nowhere defined as influences?
I'd be happy to explain

מיכי Staff replied 4 years ago

I already answered. You are repeating the same question.
Why does this happen? Ask God or brain researchers. I didn't understand what the question was.
Thoughts that arise on their own are influences, of course.

מקווה שניסחתי טוב replied 4 years ago

Levi,
There seems to be no direct connection between thoughts and actions, and therefore the connection between thoughts and actions is related to a factor that is external to their change, which can be called, for example, a decision or will, etc. And so if I am right, then your question is basically irrelevant.
In any case, according to what you say, we are able to control thoughts to some extent, and according to the Rabbi, we are also able to create them. (And perhaps the Rabbi is following the Sipha, who control by creating new ones, as the Rabbi says, over a single thought.)

Rabbi, really, since we see with the senses that there is no direct identity between thought and action, then how does the judgment manage to apply “without words” (=thoughts), then there is some defining factor in the names.

מיכי Staff replied 4 years ago

What does it mean that there is no identity between thought and action? That we do not always do what we think? So what? It has to do with weakness of will. See columns 172-3.
On non-verbal thinking, see column 379 and onwards.

הפוסק האחרון replied 4 years ago

You describe a free state where thoughts arise freely…
The will is free. Man is not free to choose what that free will will be.
He is forced to will the same will that arose freely.

At least according to the eyes of a short-sighted person who does not understand that things have a reason and that being unaware of the reasons does not make the thing without reasons.

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