Saturday 3 January 2015

FREE WILL - DOING THE UNPREDICTABLE


  Joshua - Leelah

Philosopher Daniel Dennet says you can exercise free will by doing something unpredictable, such as talking to someone you wouldn't normally talk to in the supermarket queue.

Or, deciding not to do something evil.

Imagine a fundamentalist Christian couple who decide to do something unpredictable - like accepting that God made some people gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender.

Imagine a person brought up as fan of Hitler deciding to accept that the Nazis are mainly criminals.

Philosopher Daniel Dennett says free will is much more complicated than many people believe

Does free will really exist?



Daniel Dennett says determinism and free will are not incompatible.

There are low-level forms of causation (one ball hits another one and it causes the second one to move) and higher level forms of causation.

A criminal might commit a crime 'because he was born criminal and brought up criminal."

But, the criminal is free to do the 'unpredictable' and to be good.

The criminal is free to think about his actions.

You can be unpredictable.


 Joshua - Leelah

You can avoid being manipulated.

"Freedom, of the important kind, of the kind worth wanting, is freedom from being manipulated."

Who are the people who are being manipulated and who are therefore not free?

It is mainly the ultra-conservatives, the extremists and the fundamentalists.

Think of the fundamentalist Jew who is not free to marry a Moslem.

Think of the White racist who is not free to make friends with a Black neighbour.

Think of the fundamentalist Communist who is not free to enjoy the benefits of moderate capitalism.

~~

 
Joshua - Leelah

Joshua Alcorn wanted to be a girl called Leelah.

Joshua Alcorn suffered pain and abuse from his fundamentalist Christian parents.

Joshua's parents forced him into conversion therapy, and had him see Christian therapists.

Joshua committed suicide.

Fundamentalists are being manipulated by evil ideas.

The world is full of transgender people, such as:
  • Baby Dee (b. 1953), American multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and performance artist[79]
  • Dana International, Israeli Singer, winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1998, with the song Diva
~~

"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.

"You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things.

"They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do." -Apple Inc.

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19 Comments:

At 3 January 2015 at 03:12 , Blogger aferrismoon said...

Found this, might interest you:

http://fallingmasonry.info/masonic-public.html

cheers

 
At 3 January 2015 at 04:13 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

To know we can, or at least might, overcome this enemy that moves to dim the lights, starve and mass murder us is critical. I appreciate the complexity around 'determinism and free will are not incompatible' from a psychological perspective but theologically the Bible speaks of a not always predictable future due to our freedom and God's dynamic response. Free-will might be 'complicated' but some questions are finally incompatible. Is the future set or open? Are people who are gay or transgender ever blessed by God, accepted and loved? Scripture, reason and tradition determines it for Christians.

The God of surprises is sometimes surprised but always able and willing to lead and empower us to overcome evil. Open theism and accepting of same sex love is out there to be read and considered. Go, go, go Aangirfan, you philosophical theological rabble rouser.

Mark x

 
At 3 January 2015 at 05:48 , Blogger Anon said...

A very useful list.

Many thanks.

- Aangirfan

 
At 3 January 2015 at 10:34 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

How can there be free will if there is precognition?....and there is precognition.

 
At 3 January 2015 at 11:05 , Blogger CS said...

To equate free will with "doing the unpredictable" begs the question of whether we ever do what is, at least in theory, unpredictable.

Anyway, what use is it to do the unpredictable? You make it sound virtuous, but it could be quite the reverse, like a normally law-abiding citizen pulling out a gun and shooting a total stranger.

The fact is, we will what we will for good or ill and, as discussed here, it seems we have no other option.

The concept of free will is useful only to distinguish between what is done without coercion or upon an insane impulse.

 
At 3 January 2015 at 11:26 , Blogger Anon said...

Parallel universes.

- Aangirfan

 
At 3 January 2015 at 11:31 , Blogger Anon said...

Doing the unpredictable can be either (A) desirable, or, (B) undesirable.

When the criminal does the right thing, that is one example of an unpredictable and desirable action.

- Aangirfan.

 
At 3 January 2015 at 11:32 , Blogger Anon said...

It's all about avoiding being manipulated.

- Aangirfan.

 
At 3 January 2015 at 11:53 , Blogger CS said...

When the criminal does the right thing, that is one example of an unpredictable and desirable action.

It may be unexpected, but why should we think it unpredictable? Everyone is a bundle of conflicting motivations. Everyone, therefore, acts well or badly (as we conceive it) depending on specific circumstances. A mass murderer might help an old lady across the street if she reminded him of his mother. Or perhaps he had just read your post on free will, and had the impulse to prove he was capable of doing something good. But the impulse, the response to the stimulus, would still most reasonably be interpreted as a determined event.

But even if it were not, what of it that we sometimes do random and hence unpredictable things? As far as the question of moral responsibility is concerned, we can no more take credit or blame for what is strictly determined than for what occurs as a matter of pure chance. And as far as the sum total of good and bad actions, randomness will surely not tip the balance noticeably in the direction of the good.

 
At 3 January 2015 at 14:35 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

today InfoWar radio was discussing the pushing by MSM of homosexuality and transgender people, mostly done under the banner of political correctness.
Alex and his British colleague concluded, that this has to be seen in a general context in softening up family values and prepare folks for NWO. I do agree with this assumption.
The boy in above video might definitely have transgender/homosexual? tendencies but then this kid is obviously under heavy influence of the adults to speak out, what looks like, learned statements. The doctor' s declaration "Jazz is 100% girl" has probably a lot to do with the 18k dollars he is raking in... The entire video reminds me very much of the theatrical statements of "the parents/crisis actors" in connection with SandyHoax. I am assuming, if these transgender people would live their sexuality in their original bodies and hormone settings, they would be much better integrated into society. I feel, people who underwent a "sex-change" are mostly emanating "tragical fate, sexual exploitation" specially at older age...
Caveman

 
At 3 January 2015 at 20:42 , Blogger Anon said...

Very well put.

- Aangirfan.

 
At 3 January 2015 at 20:46 , Blogger Anon said...

And yet, most people feel that they do have free will. And most people feel that George Bush is morally responsible for at least some of his actions.

 
At 3 January 2015 at 20:49 , Blogger Anon said...

But, it is still sad that so many kids commit suicide.

The 'powers that be' seem to be promoting both extremes - promoting the homophobia and promoting the 'gay extremism'.

- Aangirfan

 
At 3 January 2015 at 22:47 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

How interesting thanks for that one Aangirfan.

 
At 4 January 2015 at 01:19 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

A number of years ago (1970's?) a male physician decided to become a woman and went through a "sex change". As a supposed woman, he adopted a child, and became his mother. About ten years had passed and she decided to become a man again. Can you imagine the confusion and embarrassment the child had to face? I feel for both of them. The problem is you can never change the DNA no matter how one feels, or what one thinks. DNA doesn't lie.

I would question the doctor's ( from video) motives as well besides the money involved. Very unprofessional to make such a rash statement (100% girl) and on national tv. Hey doc what about the penis? I feel for the little boy who genuinely looks like a little girl (hormone induced of course). What about the long term effects of hormone therapy...like cancer or other diseases?

I would also like to know something about the parents... who are they? What do we know about them?

The late Canadian Psychologist Dr. Money was an evil man and a fraud who destroyed at least one family with his gender bending work. Amerikan television is pure propaganda and has always been. I do not watch it any longer since I left the Matrix. Everything is agenda driven from the news to the comedies to the dramas. Hollywood is the same as well and rarely go to see them. The social planners like Big Corp, Big Banking, Big Religion, The War Machine, etc, are destroying the US from different directions.

I appreciate your blog as there is truth in a lot of it and it has been helpful in my quest for what is really happening though I do not share your views on a number of things (homosexuality, Christianity to name a few).

 
At 4 January 2015 at 03:01 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Crossroads. Forks in the road. Choices.

 
At 4 January 2015 at 08:41 , Blogger CS said...

Yes, the concept of free will is difficult to dispose of. It underlies the concept of moral responsibility, and justifies hanging a man for stealing a sheep, a punishment that many would feel unjustified if the thief really acted as the result of necessity, predetermination, or whatever one wants to call it (i.e., his wife and ten children were starving).

Still praise and blame, punishment and reward make sense even in a deterministic universe, since the possibility of punishment or reward become determinants of behaviour.

But this view of the world is inconsistent with normal use of language and conventional thinking so we might as well accept free will as a convenient fiction.

 
At 20 December 2015 at 02:19 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Time is more like an ocean than a flat graph, so it is possible to see waves or ripples emanating from significant future events.

 
At 28 May 2022 at 10:01 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is quite false:
"Who are the people who are being manipulated and who are therefore not free?

It is mainly the ultra-conservatives, the extremists and the fundamentalists."

The mainstream masses, going with the flow and trusting their paternal newsmedia for information and guidance, are clearly the most manipulated, on the face of it.

 

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