Free Will

L

longtex

Guest
free_will.jpg
 
Did the old man freely choose to go barefoot or was that predetermined by the economic downturn. It is interesting that whichever you believe, you should go to page 72.
 
From Wiki:

"Freewill" (Sometimes written as "Free Will") is the second track on progressive rock band Rush's 1980 album Permanent Waves. It is written by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson with lyrics by Neil Peart. The song's lyrics deal with the subject of free will, emphasizing that free will is not a gift but rather a choice; explaining that Man can attempt to evade the fact that he must choose, but that evasion is itself a choice.[1]
Geddy Lee has stated that the end part of "Freewill" is at the highest part of his vocal range.[2]

rush_permanent_waves.jpg
 
You have to choose without fully understanding the ultimate outcomes of your choices or the entire impetus behind your choice. One does not always choose based on reason, and one does not always choose to make a choice that is not based on reason. Life just keeps coming.

Nothing is wholly 'free,' but it is a word that conjures up powerful feelings in the lives of men.
 
The old man tells you everything is predetermined but I don't think modern neuroscience has proved it any more than behaviorism proved 50 years ago all behaviors were mechanistically controlled by reinforcements. Maybe, in the year 2525, if man is still alive, we will have the proof one way or the other, but I doubt it.
 
I think that's a big part of the point Shakespeare was attempting to make with Hamlet. Hamlet was tormented as long as he fought his destiny as a character within the play. But he found a sort of peace of mind and peace of spirit when he gave in and chose the destiny that a revenge play required.
 
There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will.
 
buckhorn,

I don't really see anything in your post that overturns the compatibalist theme of our thread. It seems that you were "meant to be" a certain way. But then you also made choices in accordance with your nature. So you chose to be what you were meant to be.

But as you suggest at the end, that story is a long way from finished.
 
buckhorn,

Thanks for the substantive reply. And I'll apologize in advance for the descent into literary criticism that I'm about to subject you to. Feel free to disregard if that sort of thing bores you.

But I think that I agree with Antonio in Merchant of Venice: that we have much to do to know ourselves. And I agree with Ed Tom Bell in No Country for Old Men, when he says (somewhat less efficiently than Antonio) that…
In reply to:
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Christ. Rush. Those guys are gay (and I don't mean that in the good way).

Germs. Darby Crash. He was gay in the good way, though he wouldn't admit it.

Manimal by The Germs

I came into this world
as a puzzled panther
waiting to be caged
but something stood in the way
i was never quite tamed
crossed paths of right and wrong
saw them take their toll
I saw the armies march
and like animals they crawled
evelution is a process
too slow to save my soul
ive got this creature on my back
it just wont let go
Rooowwwrrrraaaaahhh
if i am only an animal
then i can do no wrong
but they say i'm something better
so ive got to hang on

Edit: el torito properly noted that my prior use of the word 'fags' was probably in poor taste, so I have amended accordingly. 'Gay' will do --- meaning excited in a wrong-headed fashion about poor aesthetic judgments.
 
We might think we have free will. Much like a tennis ball that hits the net and bounces straight up...you don't know if the ball will land on your side or the other side. The ball doesn't have free will to decide, although someone from the outside looking in that didn't know this might think the ball has free will. What the ball does have is thousands of variables that are affecting it that are going to decide the outcome. Just like humans have had millions and trillions of variables that have affected us in an infinte amount of ways that have led us to be who weare now and also make us choose one way or the other in all decisions.

It might seem like we are choosing, but there is some basis for the choice. Those variables have already been put into place and the choice really only has one answer.
 
I choose to believe that things are pretty much determined.

I think it was Fernando Pessoa who said we have just as much free will as a plankton in the wash of a large ship.

It does sound like something he would say, if he had said anything, as opposed to speaking through the voices of authors whom he invented and wrote for.

Or maybe it was de Unamuno.

I don't have to decide and even if I did I could well be wrong.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Weekly Prediction Contest

* Predict TEXAS-KENTUCKY *
Sat, Nov 23 • 2:30 PM on ABC

Recent Threads

Prediction Results Threads

2024 Schedules

Back
Top