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From: merrill@raja.DEC (Rick)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy,net.religion
Subject: I must exercise my free will !
Message-ID: <1135@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Mar-85 09:42:41 EST
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Posted: Mon Mar 18 09:42:41 1985
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Subject: Re: freedom and reason 
(attn russ, rich, & laura, jim, Gordon)

"FREE WILL" MEANS freedom from the will of an OTHER entity, such as God,
deamons, spirits, spouse, boss, president, draft board, whathaveyous.

Unless you think your mind is inhabited by deamons it is not correct to
conclude that your brain chemistry precludes free will. In other words
"free will" CAN BE deterministic as long as the causal environment being
considered does not contain another entity.  

How then do you tell the difference between your will and the various 
influences impressed upon you?

>>As Schopenhauer said:  "A man can do what he wants to, but he cannot want
>>what he wants to."  If he could, that would be free will.  As long as
>>we are not free to want what we want to want, as long as that wanting is
>>controlled by something, we have no free will.

S. may or may not be right about the first derivative of free will: i.e.
The Want That Causes One To Want.

>But it's not, is it?  In fact, to be truly free, one has to be free to be
>absurd. 

If you dont' believe in free will, watch some Month Python!!!!!!!!!

>The "controlled by something" means controlled by the biophysics
>of our own bodies and environments."  

That is a sophomorphic dead-end!

>`Free will' is one of my favorite subjects, but most people
>don't take me seriously.  Yes, I believe that there is no
>free will.

We have willed not to take you seriously, therefore we have a will that
is demonstrably free from yours!   :-)

Rick Merrill