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MadPole On Freewill


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MadPole: Freewilly! I was very excited finding a "Freewill" section in your philosophy section.

You see - I have this little problem. Cats, to my limited knowledge, don't have any "Freewill" or "freedom of choice" I, on the other hand, am respectable human being, supplied with all the faculties mentioned above. Cats laze about all day doing nothing. For that, they get fed and provided with free accommodation. I, on the other hand, have to work my guts out in order to provide myself with food and shelter. So who the hell has got Freewill and freedom? Me or the cat ?

Which brings us to the original question, answer to which I would fully appreciate: what is "freedom" and what is "Freewill". Please don't mention god damn god in your reply because I don't see any connection! My friend suggested that "responsibility" is a price of freedom. But looking at the cats I think this is other way around - it seems to me that "luck of responsibility" is a price of freedom, "responsibility" is the price one has to pay for being a slave. And I happen to be one of those people who prefers to be a cat than be a slave at any day!



Jim responds: I think there is no determinism - that is ruled out by the statistical nature of Quantum Mechanics. Sorry, had to mention QM this once. But that doesn't grant us Freewill - our behaviour could be determined by the combination of QM-caused randomness and mechanical responses to that randomness.

Personally I am coming to believe that Freewill is an illusion caused by our subconscious. Our subconscious has already decided before we are aware of even trying to make a decision consciously. Experiments have proved that. Therefore neither we, or a cat, has Freewill. All life is driven by the subconscious mind (if it has one). In the case of Humans, we are better able to delude our selves that we are free than a cat. Therefore a cat (or any animal) is wiser than us. Which, perhaps is similar to what you are saying about cats!




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