This commenter would not -- or could not, if he had no free will -- be made to understand that if free will didn't exist, we could never know it.
Nor did he appreciate -- on the assumption that determinism is true -- the futility of trying to "change" another person's mind via an appeal to truth. And finally, he engaged in the persistent error of assuming that causation on the material plane must operate in the same manner as it does on the intellectual plane -- as if the cause of understanding is no different from the cause of a car crash.
Ultimately he naively conflated subject and object, subsuming the former into the latter. And once you've done this, then it's easy enough to deny free will, because objects have no will, let alone freedom. Nevertheless, this is what all materialists do, and cannot help doing once they embrace materialism. Their conclusion is indeed compelled by their premise, but the premise is compelled by nothing.
Do they embrace materialism freely? If so, then this refutes the doctrine. Or are they compelled to embrace it? If so, then they can only believe something because they are constrained to do so, not because it is true.
Therefore, there's no way to get around the reality of free will. Freedom or nihilism. Your choice. Or, you can pretend you have no choice.
But again, why try to convince others you have no choice? Even supposing you don't, that's hardly a reason to believe others don't. On what philosophical basis do you universalize what is particular to your own existence? For universalization and freedom are intimately related. You will have noticed that animals don't apprehend universals, because in order to do so, one must transcend immediate sensory/empirical experience.
I've been slowly making my way through C.S. Lewis's Miracles -- slowly not because it's difficult but because it provokes so many ideas I want to blog about. Already I have pages and pages of notes I want to expand upon, so the further I go in the reading, the further I fall behind in the writing. I simply can't keep up with myself unless I blog every single day. Bob! Come back!
But let's stay focused. Free will. Few things are as important. Come to think if it, I can't think of anything that surpasses its importance, not even truth, because truth cannot be realized in the absence of freedom to do so.
It reminds me of how Bernie Sanders praises Cuba's "literacy program." For truly truly, of what good is literacy if one is free only to learn repulsive and destructive lies? Literacy is neither here nor there in a world where one has access only to the New York Times. In such a world, the person who cannot read is more in touch with reality than the one who can and must.
As Lewis says, "no thoroughgoing Naturalist" -- to the extent that he is an intellectually consistent one -- can believe in free will, because it would necessarily entail
that human beings have the power of independent action, the power of doing something more or other than what was involved by the total series of events.
The total series of events. In order for determinism to be true, what I am typing at the moment must be nothing more than the present effect of causes extending back to... to what exactly? This itself is highly problematic, because if the chain doesn't originate in an Uncaused Cause, then we have a cosmos of effects with no cause. Which is absurd. Or magical. Either way, it makes no sense. Say what you want about atheism, but its appeal cannot be grounded in logic.
Which reminds me. At the Democrat debate the other night, the seven dwarves were asked a moronic question about their personal motto or something. I wondered to myself, what would I come up with in such surreal circumstances? How does one reduce a lifetime of thinking to a cliché that even a liberal journalist can understand?
It might be one of thousands of wise and witty comments by Dávila, or Schuon, or Whitehead, Chesterton, Churchill, Bob Dobbs... And yet, probably the most effective one -- simultaneously timeless and timely -- is Breitbart's succinct witticism, a sprightly bon mot that is appropriate for any encounter with a Democrat: Fuck. You.
However, that's not the one that popped into my mind. Rather, I thought of Paul's crack in 2 Corinthians 3:17: Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Conversely, although Paul doesn't say it in so many words, Where the Spirit of the Lord isn't, boom, there is the left.
At any rate, something must exist in its own right, right? We all agree that there must an Uncaused Cause and Unmoved Mover, otherwise there is no ground for anything, including our explanations for anything. There must be at least one self-evident axiom or principle from which all else is derived, otherwise we are condemned to immanence, enclosed in tautology, and sealed in tenure. Ultimately it is either God or nature, but can nature ever be self-sufficient and self-explanatory?
It's easy enough to default to nature as the ground and principle of everything else, but then you've painted yourself into something of a corner with respect to where all the information comes from.
What principle accounts for the generation of information from non-information -- or life from non-life, mind from matter, subject from object, contingency from necessity, freedom from determinacy? That's a tall order, especially from chaos. Yeah, you could just insist that the first terms in the above antinomies reduce to the second, but if that satisfies you, well... you've done all the thinking you need to do and that you're capable of doing anyway.
About that Uncaused Cause. What do we know about it? A lot, actually. How do we know? Well, it's one of those things with which we are intimately familiar, to such an extent that we can't not know it: in short, that we are persons, and that a person can be defined as an uncaused cause. Not that we aren't caused per se, but that, as persons, we share in the nature of the Uncaused Cause. Which is what Dávila means when he says,
The permanent possibility of initiating causal series is what we call a person.
Could I be wrong? Yes, but only if I'm right. For
To admit the existence of errors is to confess the reality of free will.
17 comments:
It's easy enough to default to nature as the ground and principle of everything else, but then you've painted yourself into something of a corner with respect to where all the information comes from.
If nature and determinism is all there is, why would anyone ever suffer boredom or ennui? They'd be doing at all times exactly as nature intended. The very fact that it is possible to be dissatisfied with the way things are indicates that freedom is the truth.
Information is a funny thing. The very fact of simply knowing something indirectly, without actually experiencing the thing itself, can have a dramatic physical effect upon a person, even to the point of rearranging the wiring in someone's brain or causing a heart attack. How could such a thing be possible in a deterministic world?
Good evening gang:
As a committed materialist and determinist philosopher, I must mount a response to this inflammatory post. Of course I have no choice in the matter.
First there is the flagrant disrespect shown to matter in this post. Matter can be touched, smelled, seen, and tasted. One's entire day after morning prayers is completely given over to dealing with material concerns like eating and driving a car. The very stuff of one's body is matter. Every waking hour of every day is a constant intercourse with materials. Even during sleep gas exchange and circulation persist. Given all this, where does it follow that a materialist does not have a sound basis for being such? An anti-materialist would starve in a matter of days due to ignoring food. So I would argue matter and materialism have a certain primacy, which other philosophies might do well to envy. One can work with material. It is right there at all times.
Now, we materialists aren't sure where the matter came from. That's a weak spot, admittedly. The God camp has that one covered in spades, and that does hurt a little bit. So, in the interests of good sportsmanship you might not lay too heavy on that point. Thank you.
Therefore I would ask the materialist be given some respect due to the obvious allure of matter and the pervasive material surroundings we find ourselves in. It is understandable, is it not?
Then there is the matter of free will. Given that every stimulus requires a response, it follows that all responses are pre-ordained based on the type of stimulus being received. One can be contrary and make decisions that are counter-intuitive on purpose, but what does this prove? And suppose there is free will? Is that going to pay the bills? Is that going to take you out to dinner? No, it will not. So then what have you to say to that?
Therefore I would ask the determinist viewpoint be considered as being about 50% of the equation, with the other 50% being free will. We can split the spoils here, no harm, no foul.
Very well I have rebutted the post. Now I'm off to do other things of a material nature which do not require any exercise of free will whatsoever.
Salutations, Douglass Smott
Fuck. You. indeed. Speaking of scapegoating a corrupt party when the other party is equally corrupt, Trump fired the U.S. pandemic response team in 2018 to cut costs.
If this coronavirus thing gets out of hand, I'd suggest that people take the red pill.
In more relevant news, the kind of news where good and decent Christians ally with corrupt capitalists hoping for the best and then get fucked over...
A small Christian university near and dear to my families heart has collapsed due to bankruptcy, leaving thousands of good people unemployed or scrambling to complete their degrees. Apparently they were sold an online degree scam to a nefariously ruthless corporation. These people may have collectively lost millions of dollars and a hundred year old institution has been destroyed. All but the secretive university leadership were taken by complete surprise. Said leadership had apparently been hoping for a last minute miracle, since the original leadership was whereabouts unknown after things went sour.
But we don’t care about that around here. Those folks are going to have to swallow the red pill and at least embrace that nobody can take away their free will. Not even God.
Huh.
Clearly, you feel very strongly about a lot of things.
Sometimes, I wish it were possible to post images in the comments here. This would be a perfect spot for that meme with the woman shrieking at the cat...
Don't worry be happy. It's all fake news anyways. And if the bad stuff happens to the other guy, so much the better!
The stupid are surprised by stupidity and the corrupt by corruption. The intelligent and the innocent are less easily disconcerted.
What does God, The Universe get out of It's continued support for It's errant creation Man. Certainly for the most part not the recognition and respect It deserves. The mental diet forced fed the general population from the time it is schooled which is a lifelong process by it's well intentioned, but spiritually corrupt rulers urging it to claim omnipotence has made the greater part of the human race mentally constipated. Is it not understandable a dose of salts as administered at Sodom and Gomorrah is inevitable.
My sister is like Julie - Conservative Christian, mind your own f-ing business and don't feel strongly about things that aren't your concern. Make fun of others who are different from that. But the loss of her University has been very hard on her. She joined an alumni support group but is on the fence about what can be done as far as helping others in similar situations, going forward.
I say that saving the American Dream is what's important. And American Christianity is an important part of the American dream. Some say that unleashed stupidity and corruption is better than trying to restrain it. I tend to disagree. Stupidity and corruption should be restrained, somehow. But how? Therein lies the debate.
Make fun of others who are different? No. Make fun of others who lose their f-ing minds about things they have no control over and probably don't understand nearly as well as they think they do? Especially when it's been noted before that there are plenty of other places to lose your mind on the internet? Sure, when it seems necessary.
Sorry for what your sister is going through, it sounds pretty crappy. Being Christian doesn't mean you're protected from horrible things happening, it just means you have someone to pray to for guidance when the shit hits the fan, with the understanding that even if things don't work out in this life (and ultimately, given that we're all gonna die one way or another, eventually they won't), with faith it will be made clear in the next.
We can't control much about what happens to us, we can only control how we react. I hope she and all the people affected get the guidance they need, and I pray that they don't lose their faith in God due to the actions of wolves in shepherds' clothing.
"To admit the existence of errors is to confess the reality of free will."
Le Bingo'
Speaking of bingo, I've made it back to the future, I'm all caught up. Time to start slippin', slippin', slippin', into the... great wide open....
It looks like I’ve misunderstood this place. I though this was where people came to try and discuss changing everything to the left of Lindsey Graham, and to the secular of Tim Scott. Apparently it is not. This is the place where people come to bitch about everything to the left of Lindsey Graham and secular of Tim Scott because sanity tells us that we’re powerless to do anything else.
My apologies.
Is it okay if I bitch, fellow powerless comrades, from the other side for pure sport? So I’ll start afresh. Lindsey is a girls name.
Maybe, but "Anonymous" is flat out gay.
You got me. I had sex with Lindsey. You heard it here first.
Uh oh. Big guys in black suits coming out of black cars in my driveway. gotta be quick I think Trump has Lindsey by the balls with our relationship and wants it kept secret...
False alarm. It was goons from silicon valley. Nothing to fear compared to government ‘officials’, so I can go right ahead and talk about it.
Plus I figured out the Christian University thing.
This is important since it translates and scales well to all of our own little lives. It involves personal responsibility, free will, and as always, Jesus.
That former university president had worked in that position at that place for 30 years. 30 boring same old same old years with little in the way of growth to show for it. Stable with good Christian integrity, yes. Growth, not so much.
Then he received a visit from silicon valley slick boys who told him they could make all of his wildest dreams come true if he’d only give them the universities credit card number. For a few years it actually worked. The place exploded and new facilities were build. Thousands of new students. It was a miracle!
But then edu-economic changes happened and the former university president learned the hard way that he’d placed a little too much faith in miracles coming in the form of silicon valley slick boys. Being street smart they’d covered their asses against any risky possibilities but our university president (and his people I suppose) did not. That president retired and an unsuspecting newbie hired in his place. But it was too late. The university owes hundreds of millions to that company, and the only way out of that mess was to close everything down, after over a century of otherwise excellent service.
Now, it’d be nice if said former president would come out of hiding and disclose all this as a lesson for the rest of us, to take his licks for the team so to speak, for the greater good. But this has yet to happen.
Careful what miracles you wish for. I say we put our faith in the humble cautious integrity guy (sorta like Jesus methinks) and be skeptical of slick boys promising bigtime mammon miracles.
But we already knew all that, right? Well if you think you’re smarter and more disciplined than a university president PhD, who am I to stop you?
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