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From: tonyw@ubvax.UUCP (Tony Wuersch)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: freedom and reason (attn russ, rich, & laura)
Message-ID: <154@ubvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Apr-85 14:10:40 EST
Article-I.D.: ubvax.154
Posted: Tue Apr  9 14:10:40 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 15-Apr-85 01:22:37 EST
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> I think that Tony Wuersch is talking about *freedom*, not *free will*.
> If you point a gun to my head you have considerably diminished my freedom,
> but I don't think that you have diminished my free will.
> ...
> When I ask ``do I have free will''? I am implicitly asserting that there
> is something worthwhile about asking questions. After all, I am bothering
> to do this rather than doing something else. The reason that it is good
> to ask questions is that it is a way of acquiring true knowledge. But
> why should true knowledge be of any use to me? Because, the more true
> knowledge I have, the fewer mistakes I should make.
> ...
> If I do not have free will then I cannot ``make a mistake'' -- every thing
> that I do is outside of the realm of personal choice and therefore is
> inevitable.
> 
> Laura Creighton
> utzoo!laura

Laura's definition of 'free will' seems to be a lagged form of mine.  I
think free will is the ability at a given moment to exert control over
one's world.  Laura thinks free will is the ability at a given moment
to learn in order that at a later moment one can exert control over
one's world (that is, 'not make mistakes').

I would infer from this that if at a later time I am restrained from making
a mistake (say by imprisonment or some similar tragedy), then at the earlier
time when I was "learning", I then didn't have free will.  So at any moment
I can never know if I have free will because I can't know if in the future
I can use what I've learned.

As far as freedom goes, I define freedom in a more-or-less Confucian or
Aristotelian way:  freedom is the ability to carry out one's duties,
responsibilities and obligations to oneself and others without the
interference of petty tyrants.  I see free will as necessary to bring
about freedom, and to defend against tyrants (personal and political).
But I don't see free will as the essence of freedom.  The essence of
freedom is a moral order to which one can aspire.

Tony Wuersch
{amd,amdcad}!cae780!ubvax!tonyw

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
wakeup ... getup ... wakeup ...
When I woke up this morning and got out of bed
I had some really fresh thoughts going through my head
They were the thoughts that came from a wonderful dream
It was a vision of the world working as a team
It was a dream ... wakeup ... Just a .. wakeup ... getup
				from "Wakeup" -- by Run-DMC