TO: Marco, Diana and Elephant
FROM: Rog
RE: Free Will
I must be feeling very agreeable today. I have agreed with Diana for years
that the self is a fiction, in that it is a creation that we derive from
experience. I agree with Pirsig that to the extent one uses the SOM version
of the self, that it is an "impossible fiction" for reasons I will explain
shortly. However, I also agree with Marco that the self is real. After all,
concepts and patterns are real. Even fictions -- even IMPOSSIBLE fictions
-- are real.
Last but not least, I agree with Elephant when he says that the issue is
answerable within the MOQ's "work as a whole." My concern is simply that Mr
Robert M. Pirsig didn't really answer it in the passage where he says he
answers it -- at least not clearly.
To me, FREE WILL has always been an inherent oxymoron of subject object
metaphysics. If we start with a distinct subject, it must be either
disconnected from the envirionment -- which is absurd -- or influenced by its
environment -- which leads to determinism. The SOM self leads to the free
will / determinism controversy.
In the MOQ, of course, both the self and the will are abstractions of
experience. Free will in the MOQ is where our "WILL" abstraction and our
"SELF" abstraction are consistent. My favorite illustration of this is in
the dieter's proclamation:
" I couldn't resist that piece of chocalate cake!"
If the dieter's self is aligned with the desire to resist eating and be thin,
then this action is against their will. If the self is aligned with the
biological urge, then it is an example of free will.
In the MOQ, free will is as simple as the correlation between two patterns of
abstraction. The world is certainly dynamic and undetermined as the MOQ (and
modern as opposed to classical science) suggests. However, both determinism
and free will are real concepts reflecting real abstractions that occur on a
personal level concerning the correlation between the self and the will.
But then again, I could be wrong.
Rog
PS -- The other issues-of-the-month reqarding the self make absolutely no
sense to me. I either don't understand them, or I disagree with their
initial premises, or both. Maybe I am not so agreeable after all.
PPS -- I have been unable to participate in this forum for months due to the
functionality of my email provider. I am hoping I have now resolved the
issue. If not, I apologize in advance.
MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org
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