Andreas, All
Dan
> So do we have a choice in deciding to play at reality?
> Or do we do it compulsively? Does decision lie in a compulsive act?
3WD
Depending on your perspective the idea of life as "play at reality" can
conjure up the image of "play" as a fun, joyous, good activity or
"play"as a make believe, artificial, cheap imitation of life. But I
think it is worthwhile to make the distinction between life and reality.
There is little doubt that living beings compulsively pursue life, or to
continue living or be. To stretch that to "living beings compulsively
and choicelessly pursue reality" is an entirely different issue on which
we have widely ranging opinions.
********
Dan concludes:
> Simply put, the champion who makes no choice will always defeat the one who does
> make choices.
Andreas suggests:
> and an third independent existing entity which differs from both and which I call the choosing
> self.
Marco/Jonathan via Roger:
> Marco really got me thinking when he wrote "Existence is a continuous choice. If to choose is to pursue what's more valuable, then existence is necessarily a movement toward excellence." Similarly, citing the 2nd law of thermodynamics, Jonathan wrote "systems evolve towards increasing (degrees of) freedom."
Roger's explores a chess analogy which leave him with choice questions:
> If a choice is a behavioral pattern of value, then choices are by definition
> a movement toward quality. Still, the question remains, which choice is the
> most dynamic? Which choice is the most evolved? Is it the choice which leads
> to the greatest freedom of choice?
Mark doesn't like life as a chess game and suggests:
> But imo the Choice villain is still at large dodging the
> "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune". The search
> continues...
He then proposes a nihilistic cyclist medaphor as a better option:
> - life is purposeless
> - the future is unknowable
> - we pursue the unknown
> - the known is used as a guide for the unknown
> - life is a solitary pursuit
> - life is cyclical (sorry!)
and concludes that:
> A "choice which is more dynamic" is imo one based on those
> moral judgments which when formed were based on experienced
> reality. A less Dynamic choice might be once based
> primarily on moral judgments which originally were formed
> out of pre-existing patterns rather than reality.
**************
3WD
I will suggest that life and reality are both choiceful and choiceless
and further that the goal of all life is to go from unconscious
choicelessness to conscious choicelessness by choice. And this is only
possible by making GOOD CHOICES.
Confused, boy I sure am. This is getting long, cogitate on it and I'll
try to find a less confusing way to say it.
3WD
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