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From: tonyw@ubvax.UUCP (Tony Wuersch)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: freedom and reason (attn russ, rich, & laura)
Message-ID: <137@ubvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 19-Mar-85 18:53:13 EST
Article-I.D.: ubvax.137
Posted: Tue Mar 19 18:53:13 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 26-Mar-85 03:47:38 EST
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> I do not think that you can ask the question ``does man have free will''
> without using the free will whose existence you are questioning. The
> question implies that there is a true answer to the question and that
> you would like this knowledge. But why should knowledge interest you?
> Because it is possible to make mistakes, and you are trying to avoid
> making them. Aha! By your own effort, in searching for the truth, it
> is possible to influence your actions so that you will make fewer
> mistakes! This is an implicit assumption in asking any question. So,
> in asking the question you are either performing another meaningless
> action, or you are demonstrating the free will whose existence you
> are trying to prove.
> 
> Laura Creighton
> utzoo!laura

Another funny assumption of this free will debate is that free will
is a possession, some kind of {meta}physical capacity in us.  That can't
be!  Free will is a *relation* between a person and her world (world: some
bounded space-time continuum of possibility).  The question "does man
have free will" should be answered, "depends on who and where -- which
man[persons] and what world[worlds]".

Hence the information that some person asks the question "does man have
free will" gives no guidance as to whether that person has free will or not.
Try as we might, we can't move our worlds onto the net to be judged.  And
not all of our worlds are the same.

Tony Wuersch