Comments on: The Nature of Life: Are We All Masochists?

By: Enlightened Carrot

Enlightened Carrot — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 00:43:00 +0000

Comments on the internet tend to be a difficult medium to explain
mathematical allegories. Allow me to put it to you in laymens terms
then. You are thinking of yourself in terms of parts. Your heart, lungs,
and brain(for brevity’s sake I’ll only talk about these three,but keep
in mind that I mean all of our organs) and you are convinced that these
parts make up you, which is true, yet the antitheses of this is also
true, and that is that you are the whole of these parts. Think of it
like this, you are an apple, you are cut up into slices, the slices came
from the whole but also the whole is made up of slices. Why do I
describe this? Well, for two reasons, the first being that if you think of your body as a whole you can disregard the statement [sic],” And since there is no free
will bundle of neurons..” because the”driver” isn’t one neuron, it’s you
as a whole. The second reason I describe this is because I’d like to
point you to what Philosopher Plato made a philosophy in his work “The Republic.” In “The Republic” Plato describes something called the Divide line
the divide line is summed up easily with this description
Episteme(which in our tongue would mean knowledge) is built from two
forms, the first being Noesis(which in our tongue mean Intelligence or
dialectic) and the second being dianoia(which in our tongue would be
Mathematical reasoning). knowledge, according to Plato, is the only way we can come to truly understand what Plato would call to noeton(which in our tongue would mean either reality or the intelligible realm).
There is then a dividing line(hence the name of the concept) between
Episteme and what, Mr. Plato would have called Doxa(which in our tongue
would mean opinion.Just like Episteme, Doxa has two forms one called
pistis(belief) and one called eikasia(Illusion) which make up to horaton(which
is how human minds interpret their world, I.E. The world through you
eyes) Now Episteme and Doxa are divided by what I call reason. The only
way of knowing Episteme is through reason, not just blanket declarations
like the one you state by Dr. Daniel Kahneman, who ever that guy is.
Just to leave on a scientific note I’d like to Quote a Dr. Carl Sagan,”
There is no such thing as an authority, there are only experts at best.” I hope this makes clear my meaning, if not I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have.

By: Christian

Christian — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 02:21:00 +0000

May Jeshua guide your course through the world least you become part of it.

Kinda lame you can’t edit.

By: Christian

Christian — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 02:19:00 +0000

The fact is nobody has a choice to be born. You are born and after that point you have to live life. You can do it badly or well. Circumstances do play a part on how easy the life will be, but you are still the one making the decisions (free will). I would hope you put yourself somewhere you can help others, discern truth from lies, and promote peace. May Jeshua guild your course through the world least you become part of it.

By: Sylk

Sylk — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:20:00 +0000

Sorry about the delay in reply. I’m not grasping your point.

By: Enlightened Carrot

Enlightened Carrot — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 21:58:00 +0000

If you don’t mind I’m going to use a mathematical example for my explanation. Lets say that you are the number 1. As we all know the Number 1 is made up of ten .1′s but .1 is still one unit. You are failing to realize ,my friend, that not only are you composed of your organs, but your body also partitions your organs. You, as in, yourself, are one whole unit. If you don’t consider yourself together, then how do we go about picking up all the pieces?

By: Sylk

Sylk — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 22:30:00 +0000

Hi EC, allow me back this up a tad.
For the record, I am not religious and do not believe in determinism. (Other
than given physical laws. I hit my thumb with a hammer, it hurts.)
If someone is obese and wants not to be, why can’t they lose the weight? Apart from Sumo wrestlers and defensive linemen, I don’t think anyone chooses obesity.
Further, to offer a reason why someone drives too fast, or fails in school may be entirely true, but it is not a demonstration of free will.
Without a lengthy neuroscience discussion, suffice it to say that the brain is completely interconnected. There is no place in it that is the starting point such as would be necessary if we had free will.
Free will implies a driver that operates the brain. There is no such entity. My view of how we work requires nothing more than what is there. Whether one believes in free will or a God, both positions require an unproven ‘operator.’ And since there is no free
will bundle of neurons, then free will would have to come from something external,
just like a God.
I realize people seldom change their view as a result of these exchanges, but it’s fun to talk about.

By: Enlightened Carrot

Enlightened Carrot — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 20:15:00 +0000

Determinism, I still argue, is the only chance you have at proving that freewill doesn’t exist, but that’s besides the point. Let me answer you simply, people are obese because they like to eat,people are driving fast because they’ve got shit to do which they are late for, people are failing school because they don’t like to study, people aren’t all rich because not everyone likes being a Lawyer Douche. All the things that you’ve cited are examples of freewill. I don’t understand how you’ve come to the conclusion you have, but it sounds like all that non-sense the church spouts about Yahweh having a set plan for the entire universe, also know as destiny, which in my opinion you can’t be a freethinker without acknowledging the falsehood of their claims.
P.S. My apologies for being rude in the last post.

By: Sylk

Sylk — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:22:00 +0000

Dear EC, lack of free will does not equate to determinism, your brain is far more complex than that. And, so far, no matter where I post my observation, no one has answered my question about being obese, driving too fast, failing in school, or not getting rich. All of which should be fairly simple if one can simply choose the alternatives out of free will.

By: Enlightened Carrot

Enlightened Carrot — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 22:40:00 +0000

This is a Libertarian site, the definition of Libertarian is that you are a person who believes in free will. Science has dis-proven determinism with the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle, take you Churches engraved non-philosophy and shove it up your ass!

By: Sylk

Sylk — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 23:14:00 +0000

You start with a conclusion,that you have free will. As Dr. Daniel Kahneman as pointed out, ‘You have all the free will your brain allows you to think you have.’
One way to think about it is to consider the possibility that you do not operate on consciousness, rather consciousness operates on you, or that what you call you is merely a drop in an ocean of consciousness. The drop doesn’t choose anything.
Another argument against freewill is more straightforward. If humans have free will, why are so many people fat,why do they drive too fast, fail in school? Why isn’t everyone rich? Why don’t they just fire up that free will and shed those pounds?