Identity (Identity)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Monday, August 24, 2009, 06:09 (5569 days ago) @ dhw

dhw, - I have many thoughts about this topic, I'll do my best to keep everything straight. I have two central observations: - 1. I recognize I have the power to do what I want to do. - 2. I recognize that what I want to do, often comes upon me unbidden. - It is the interplay between these two that gives me the difficulty I have in the ages-old debate of free will. - I view consciousness as simply the ability to make decisions, in the case of humans this is aided by the use of symbolic language. - I probably oversimplify David's position, but to me an absolute assertion of free will cannot be taken at face value. I agree with him that the thoughts do not come from outside, therefore they must be mine, but the *will* part of free will is what compels me to say "not completely." We have strong internal drives, and these drives are what move us. What drives us shapes our personality, but its the simple choices we make that alter the drives, makes them weaker or stronger. - I often like to say "Man is a torrent. One must master the currents for any hope of mastering the self." When I was on vacation as mentioned in my return post, I felt compelled to read Emerson. I brought a couple of other books, yet I returned to Emerson to read and reread. In analyzing this, yes I had free will to read something else, and I know I could have. However, I knew that doing so would have been fruitless. My mind would not have been up to the task. I find that for me, "free will" has been an exercise in nudging my drives where I want them to go. Just now I had to pause for five minutes to join my wife in watching the Tudors for the scene were Anne Boleyn lost her head. I could have chosen to continue watching, yet I couldn't--drawn in by the melodrama of excellent tele writing. I wasn't even aware that I wasn't typing. - I regret that this doesn't answer too many questions, but perhaps should let people see what I mean when I can't fully say that I'm in control. I am *most* of the time. I think that the doctrines that says that we control ourselves at all times understimates human instinct/drive and overestimates abstract reasoning--another relic of Thomist thought. It needs to go. - The best things mankind have made weren't deliberate. They started as crude and unbidden thoughts that were whittled by deliberate will. Claiming absolute free will negates inspiration just as much as claiming we are slaves to atoms negates free will. Neither tells a complete truth.

--
\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"