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Mr Walker, on 04 September 2012 - 11:13 AM, said:
Thats one of the reasons I am not too keen on university philosophy courses lol; they give lots of people funny ideas. Free will and choice is not limited by gravity. How can gravity negate my WILL? How can gravity prevent me from execising the intent of my will?
It cannot. Gravity can only influence the condsequence of an action, and as this consequence comes after a thought and a deed, it has no power to proscribe or prevent my thoughts or deed.
For example I see a tall cliff. I know that if i walk off it, i will die from the effects of gravity. But that knowledge cannot prevent me making a decision to walk of the cliff, nor prevent me from doing so It is my free willed choice to do so or not. Knowledge informs and empowers us and allows beteer choices but it has no physicl effect on free will for example i see a wall i front of me Despite wah ti know about walls i decide that this time maybe i wil be able to walk right through it. So i decide to I walk right up to it and through it, and (probably) I bounce of with a sore nose. But none of my knowledge prevented me from constructing an intent(will) or exercising that intent (action) I have complete freedom of will and action. Mos tliely the wall stoped me from succeding but that does not impede either my will or my action. There is nothing in human physiolgy to limit our abilty to form intent (exercise our will ) or attemept to act on it. Every day i spread my arms, face into the wind, run, and try to fly. I rarely succeed. BUT when I strap on a hang glider and do the same thing, yippee I am up and away flying like a bird. If i was impeded in my will or actions I could never have learned to hang glide. Something in my mind or physiology would have prevented me thinking it was possible or stopped me from trying it. But nothing does. Thats true of everything.
Go back and tell your philosophy professors to think again
If they are good enough they will get the joke. There are things unconnected to will Like whether we are born male or female or still born.That doesnt negate the freedom of our will. Freedom of will can logically only apply where will is possible. A stone doesnt have a will. A flower has no choice when to open or close I have no choice about being born . But of course a human CAN apply will to many things, even gender and sexuality If you want to you can change your gender up to a point If you want to.
(Not that i would recpmmed this, but you can chose your sexual partners contrary to your genetic preferences There is nothing to stop you doing so) Even within things predetermined, like our eventual death, we do and have to make choices and those choices are freely made and acted on. Nothing forces us into one decision/intent or another. That's just a belief.
And where will is concerned, there is no physical predestination. For example gravity causes water to run down hill. It thus appears predestined that this wil happen. No will is involved; but invoke a human's will and we can make water run uphill.
It cannot. Gravity can only influence the condsequence of an action, and as this consequence comes after a thought and a deed, it has no power to proscribe or prevent my thoughts or deed.
For example I see a tall cliff. I know that if i walk off it, i will die from the effects of gravity. But that knowledge cannot prevent me making a decision to walk of the cliff, nor prevent me from doing so It is my free willed choice to do so or not. Knowledge informs and empowers us and allows beteer choices but it has no physicl effect on free will for example i see a wall i front of me Despite wah ti know about walls i decide that this time maybe i wil be able to walk right through it. So i decide to I walk right up to it and through it, and (probably) I bounce of with a sore nose. But none of my knowledge prevented me from constructing an intent(will) or exercising that intent (action) I have complete freedom of will and action. Mos tliely the wall stoped me from succeding but that does not impede either my will or my action. There is nothing in human physiolgy to limit our abilty to form intent (exercise our will ) or attemept to act on it. Every day i spread my arms, face into the wind, run, and try to fly. I rarely succeed. BUT when I strap on a hang glider and do the same thing, yippee I am up and away flying like a bird. If i was impeded in my will or actions I could never have learned to hang glide. Something in my mind or physiology would have prevented me thinking it was possible or stopped me from trying it. But nothing does. Thats true of everything.
Go back and tell your philosophy professors to think again
If they are good enough they will get the joke. There are things unconnected to will Like whether we are born male or female or still born.That doesnt negate the freedom of our will. Freedom of will can logically only apply where will is possible. A stone doesnt have a will. A flower has no choice when to open or close I have no choice about being born . But of course a human CAN apply will to many things, even gender and sexuality If you want to you can change your gender up to a point If you want to.(Not that i would recpmmed this, but you can chose your sexual partners contrary to your genetic preferences There is nothing to stop you doing so) Even within things predetermined, like our eventual death, we do and have to make choices and those choices are freely made and acted on. Nothing forces us into one decision/intent or another. That's just a belief.
And where will is concerned, there is no physical predestination. For example gravity causes water to run down hill. It thus appears predestined that this wil happen. No will is involved; but invoke a human's will and we can make water run uphill.
Geez Louise Mr Walker, you bring up some juicy talking points. I really wish I had the time to engage them but I'm in a Doctoral program that requires 99% of my awake time and 98% of my sleep time
.Do you know anything about the Jewish concept of Free Will, specifically Yetzer Ra and Yetzer Tov?
