Skip to main content

Determinism is a 'scientific' parody of Liebnitz's 'best of all possible worlds'.

And it lacks the flair of Voltaire's Candide.

Notes:

Any philosophy formed in response to determinism finds itself working on the terms of the determinist, or else endorsing its basis but denying it has any hold on our ethereal spirits that somehow are not of this world but manage to manipulate it. I therefore shrug off questions of free-will along with the concept of will altogether.

Addendum (6/25):

For concepts of will and volition are unnecessary.
For choice can be had where (what we intuitively call) the will is constrained.
For the concerns which lead to such questions and follow from them are absurd and have no bearing on life.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Magical Unrealism

The same men who say global warming is a hoax, Obamacare has been failing for eight years, and abstinence-only sex-ed works are also convinced even basic gun control is an impossible and useless approach which would only make us less safe. These are also the dudes most likely to tell you black and brown folk have it too good, Obama is a secret Muslim born in Kenya, and Sharia law is being forced on American legal systems. I wonder if there's some sort of overarching thread or theme to all this.
2 comments
Read more

An introduction to a book that doesn't exist:

Prose and verse are generally accepted as distinct writing formats with their own rules, styles, and grammars.  Though their borders are somewhat vague, they have come to be seen as something of a dichotomy in the eyes of the general public.  There are, however, at least 3 other popular approaches to writing as exhibited in picture-books, comicbooks, and plays.  Though sometimes given short shrift, these styles are accepted as literature.  They are included in libraries, book stores, and academic study.  Most importantly, they are read. In the general case, there is clearly writing being done in the creation of any one of these.  But what of the wordless comic or silent play?  Should we consider scripts written, but fully realized plays, comics, and picture-books, to be performance, art, or some other kind of non-literature?  These worries of theory are kinks to be worked out, surely, but they are not of immediate practical concern to the writer...
12 comments
Read more

The summer's demi-apocalypse has to wind down at some point.

It's the end of summer, once again. I could not be any more ready for cool weather, rain, and a chance for the forests to recover from the flames. After travelling near fires in Colorado and Oregon's Columbia river gorge, I am back wondering about north Seattle, under a red sun and painterly clouds, not far enough from the source of the drifting smoke. It seems like the world is burning, but that can only last so long.
3 comments
Read more