Causal Agent or Causal Object?
December 28th, 2008, search relatedRelated posts :: why (be) cause? :: why (be) cause? :: To Gary.C.Moore :: Plato Theaet. 155e[bxb]
Causal Agent or Causal Object?
GEVANS613 at aol.com wrote:
>Joe: phenomenologically, we experience ourselves as causal agents
>making causally effective choices. so where does the belief in
>determinism come from?
>Jud: Phenomena is philosophical doctrine manqué proposed by the
>insufferable scallywag Edmund Husserl based on the study of human
>experience in which considerations of objective reality are not taken
>into account.
let’s not get distracted by a cloud of verbiage. you’ve previously
echoed Richard’s position, “He [Richard] holds that even if antecedal
determinism does dictate the unfolding of events, and free will does not
really pertain, it is better to ignore it and carry on with one’s life
as if the decisions which me make are volitional. I agree with this
second feature of his approach. For reasons that I am willing to discuss
as a separate question.”
focus, Jud! we’re discussing that question … separately … now.
it doesn’t matter whether one makes volitional choices because one has
the power to do so or whether one makes what seem to be volitional
choices because determining influences compel one to make those choices
while also compelling one to believe that it is necessary to pretend
that they are volitional. the end result is that one experiences being a
causal agent rather than a causal object.
the problems for your approach are that you haven’t got a coherent
theory to explain:
1. how determining influences can make one group of people (the
Ubermensch of philosophy) believe in determinism and another group of
people (the Untermensch of philosophy) disbelieve in determinism without
creating a class structure built into the fabric of the universe.
2. why determining influences would require us to act as if we
disbelieved determinism and exercised the power to take volitional
actions.
Joe
–
Philosophy is, after all, done ultimately in the first person for the
first person. — H-N Castaneda
@^@~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~@^@
http://what-am-i.net
@^@~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~@^@
