I suggest that you read up on Quantum Physics and Dynamics. "In Search of Schroedinger's Cat" by John Gribbin as wells as "In Search of Schroedinger's Kittens" is a good place for the layman to start.
This is a gross mis-statement of the libertarian position as I understand it. No wonder you believe that freewill doesn't exist.
No person or agent of freewill is free of external nor internal circumstances nor influences. Nor is any decision uncaused. The operative words are "compelled"...
Ultimately there is only Now, the eternal moment. We, however, while we experience time duration and remember the past, live in the Now think and speak sequentially and measure time the same way. I used it only as an expression to convey the thought of an enduring universe.
Its...
Yes I,m serious and no it doesn't. It is my understanding that it would mean just the opposite. Take my toy train example, why would and intelligent, logical, reasonable entity make such a thing. It rapidly becomes as monotonous as watching a clock run. The entity, God, the Creator, would...
It's a possibility. I am coming from the belief that the Universe is intelligently designed. That it is logical and reasonable. If hard determination were true then what would be the point. It would be like watching a toy train go around on an oval track and never varying its speed or path...
Just so that we all know what we are talking about I summit the above quotes as our working definitions. There is also a link to wikipedia to an article on determinism for those who would like more information.
I've already made my point why I have the opinion that hard determinism cannot...
Sure we do it all the time. On macro scales and with thousands if not millions of incedents the Laws of Quantum Physics and Chance are as good approximations as we can get, vertual mathematical certainties.
Its no so much that it can predict the future, its that the future is totally determined by the past and present. In hard determinism there is no room for chance or freewill.
We are destined to live our lives exactly as determined by the past events.
In principle if we can know the exact...
Absolutely! And I agree that a purely determinate universe would be boring, faulty and probably short lived.
The Laws of Chance are not definitive nor binding on individual events. No prediction can be made. Only the odds of one outcome over another happening can be determined. That does...
If an event is truly random then it is not controlled by natural laws. Here I am using spontaneous as implied or included in random. Such things as radioactive decay, the generation of virtual particles in a vacuum, the uncertainty principle and the paths of electrons are all examples of...
Hard determinism is illogical as it ignores random events known to occur. Natural selection, mutation and sexual reproduction are natural examples as is Quantum Mechanics and Dynamics.
(That was quick)
I didn't. I think that I was looking too deeply nor did I know that Hegel was an idealist. Your last example with the gas clouds seems to clear it up for me. I think now that I understand. In this sense then Being and Non-being are linked and share the property Becoming as...
heusdens, I have delayed responding to this last post because I have read it four times and still have trouble understanding it.
First the word "Being" implies, to me anyway, a conscious, aware, living entity. I realize that Hegel and you are using it, "being", as "existing."
In your...
I repeat:
Freewill does not mean absolutely free of any and all outside and internal influences. It simply means that we do have a real choice between alternatives and our choice is not compelled by predestination nor by determinism.
To expound: My doctor tells me to lose weight. I know...
Assuming that you are still monitoring this thread, I apologize for the late response.
I agree that Non-being is an empty and thus non-changeable abstraction.
I do not agree that Being is empty nor non-changeable.
If we look at Being as a pure abstraction and the only alternative or...