Re: Mind's Eye Freewill - A useful myth?

As far as accountability goes we are free agents and that is the
reason for making good choice and not an evil one. One can never claim
exemptions from judgments of the courts or society on the ground of
determinism , but one can do so if of insane mind. When you do
something you know you are doing it , and if there is a hidden
motivation that doesn't absolve you of your actions. We are all robots
in the hands of God , but to ourselves and the society in general we
are free agents. Thus there is no need to live in fear of God as He
knows our bondage , but we should fear our conscience as well as the
society in which we live. Again, there is much pleasure in living with
a humanitarian mindset as it gives us a sense of worth and
satisfaction.

On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 3:03 AM, malcymo <malcymo@gmail.com> wrote:
> Humanity has always, for some reason, felt the need to support his
> world view with a series of myths commonly termed beliefs in order to,
> in some way, justify its behaviour. We must not, however, believe that
> these myths are always spiritual or mystical in nature. Many are not.
>
> The legitimacy of a myth depends on many features. Umberto Eco in his
> excellent tome 'Foucault's Pendulum' quietly draws our attention to
> the requirements needed for the creation of a robust myth and there is
> no doubt that within most religious and philosophical beliefs the
> required elements are found.
>
> Secular myths, however, are somewhat harder to pin down. This may be
> because they are founded little more than intuition. They are
> therefore difficult to identify as myths in the first place. Also,
> such myths can often serve a very useful purpose.
>
> Let us take as an example the idea of freewill. The idea is so
> embedded in our psych that most of us believe it to be a reality. Even
> so, an in depth study soon reveals the fragility of the idea. So
> fragile is it that philosophers have argued over the question of
> determinism v free will for generations; time which could have been
> more usefully employed on other ventures. Indeed some eminent
> philosophers believe that free will and determinism can sit
> legitimately together – the so called Such is the nature of a myth.
>
> We can only suppose that such an idea must appear rational to us in
> order to give it legitimacy. After all, our ideas of virtuous
> behaviour, responsibility and justice are founded on the idea of free
> will; that we are responsible for our actions and must accept our
> responsibilities. Yet, there is no doubt that free will defies the
> tenets embodied in modern physics, the idea of cause and effect. It
> seems to be extremely difficult for us to accept that some things just
> are.
>
> I am interested in this dilemma because if we eventually discover, if
> we have not already, that determinism is beyond dispute how should we
> react? How could we possibly recreate our society to live with such a
> 'truth'?