Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site spar.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!harvard!godot!mit-eddie!genrad!decvax!decwrl!spar!ellis From: ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis) Newsgroups: net.philosophy Subject: Re: Redefining free will? Message-ID: <126@spar.UUCP> Date: Sun, 10-Mar-85 13:57:15 EST Article-I.D.: spar.126 Posted: Sun Mar 10 13:57:15 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 12-Mar-85 09:02:14 EST References: <627@pyuxd.UUCP> <159@frog.UUCP> Reply-To: ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis) Organization: Schlumberger Palo Alto Research, CA Lines: 30 >To argue that there might be something outside of cause and effect >that is somehow related to our conciousness is so far from the >common understanding of the word "free" that the expression "free >will" as it is commonly interpreted in philosophy should be replaced >with something suitable to what is being discussed. Apparently, thinking in strictly causal terms has become so ingrained to western minds that we have forgotten how to perceive things any other kind of way. Forgive me if I appear to be completely in the ozone, but the overwhelming sentiment in a vast quantity of metaphysical writings seems to be that one's awareness is directly proportional to one's freedom from the realm of cause and effect. A clear depiction of the vehicle by which such pure awareness may be attained can be found in Revelations, where the angel announces: "And there shall be time no longer" ...thereby destroying the very fabric that links causes to effects. The scientific viewpoint can barely parse such utterances, naturally enough. Science, after all, is SUPPOSED to explain everything in terms of cause and effect. -michael LightFlash put a question to Nothing's There `Are you something, sir? Or isn't anything there?'