Cognitively we are utterly distinct from all the other animals. We can determine our own behaviour in ways they can't.

One consequence of that is that we have free will, and we know we have it. I can decide to type &&&, or I can decide to type $$$ instead, or not to type anything. That demonstrates to my satisfaction that I have (what I mean by) free will.

I think perhaps other animals have a latent capacity for free will, but they can't properly exercise it because they don't know they have it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/5cm161/do_animals_have_free_will/

Cognitively we are utterly distinct from all the other animals. We can determine our own behaviour in ways they can't.

One consequence of that is that we have free will, and we know we have it. I can decide to type &&&, or I can decide to type $$$ instead, or not to type anything. That demonstrates to my satisfaction that I have (what I mean by) free will.

I think perhaps other animals have a latent capacity for free will, but they can't properly exercise it because they don't know they have it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/5cm161/do_animals_have_free_will/

I think YES, thank you Dr.Derra for sharing this link.

Regards, Emad

Highly interesting question. Free will needs possibility to chose. I have doubts.

Yes sure

They are the only creatures that have free will...

We are enslaved by many many things Prof !!!! that forms our society to habits ...

May be with limited choices.

Liqaa

Thank you for sharing the question. I believe not. Otherwise...

Regards

I do not know if animals have free will, although I believe that they are more linked and determined to the laws of nature than we humans.

I believe and there is evidence that non-human animals have consciousness and intelligence, that they learn to solve problems of their context and survival with relative originality, not so much from our perspective of original creation, but comparing the way each individual of said animal species learns to solve their problems.

Before all the previous evidence, I am nobody, much less God to erect me as a dictator and negative thinking by limiting the possibilities of some higher nonhuman species, if they enjoy freedom of choice or free will.

regards

Jose Luis

No se si los animales tienen libre albedrío, aunque si considero que están más ligados y determinados a las leyes de la naturaleza que nosotros los humanos.

Creo y existen evidencias de que los animales no humanos tienen consciencia e inteligencia, que aprenden a resolver problemas propios de su contexto y supervivencia con relativa originalidad, no tanto desde nuestra perspectiva de creación original, sino comparando entre si la forma como cada individuo de dicha especie animal aprende a resolver sus problemas.

Ante todas las evidencias anteriores, no soy nadie , mucho menos Dios para erigirme como dictador y de pensamiento negativo al limitar las posibilidades de que algunas especies superiores no humanas, si disfruten de libertad de elección o libre albedrío.

Saludos

José Luis

Do humans have free will? I doubt that this can be unambigeously proved or disproved. So how could we say something about the free will of animals?

If you try to find an experimental/formal criterion, e.g.: "free will is demonstrated by the choice between possibilities of which non is immediately more advantageous to the acting individuum in an objective way" than you can probably find species that can under certain circumstances eet this criterion.

Animals have personalities if you get two cats and expose them to choose likely to have different choices. Living with intelligent animals make me afraid they speak to me one day from their intelligence and behaviours. I would say not a free will but different behaviours or personalities.

Best regards

Aly R Abdel-moemin

Dear Colleagues, Good Day,

"Free will similar in animals, humans - but not so free

By Jason Palmer

The free will that humans enjoy is similar to that exercised by animals as simple as flies, a scientist has said.

The idea may simply require "free will" to be redefined, but tests show that animal behaviour is neither completely constrained nor completely free.

The paper, in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests animals al

"Choices" actually fit a complex probability but, at least in humans, are perceived as conscious decisions.

The idea tackles one of history's great philosophical debates, and Bjoern Brembs of the Berlin Free University brings the latest thinking from neurobiology to bear on the question.

What has been long established is that "deterministic behaviour" - the idea that an animal poked in just such a way will react with the same response every time - is not a complete description of behaviour.

"Even the simple animals are not the predictable automatons that they are often portrayed to be," Dr Brembs told BBC News.

However, the absence of determinism does not suggest completely random behaviour either.ways have a range of options available to them.

Experiments including Dr Brembs' own 2007 work with flies has shown that although animal behaviour can be unpredictable, responses do seem to come from a fixed list of options.

"Free will is not that lofty metaphysical thing that it was until the 1970s or so," Dr Brembs said.

"More and more people are realising that it's a biological property, a trait; the brain possesses the freedom to generate behaviours and options on its own."

The exact mechanism by which brains - from those of flies up to humans - do that generation remains a matter for experiments to more fully prove."...

Please, go to the attached website link to read the rest of the article...

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-11998687

If there is a mechanism that allows free will in humans, then there would have to be a compelling scientific reason why humans and animals would be different - we're not, apart from more developed areas of the prefrontal cortex. How would these areas turn a switch enabling free will is hard to envision.

Indeed, the Free Will theorem shows that if we are endowed with free will, then even elementary particles must be endowed with a rudimentary measure of free will. In other words, either we are automatons, or, the whole universe is alive (however dimly).