(July 26, 2016 at 10:23 am)Sappho Wrote:(July 26, 2016 at 9:11 am)Rhythm Wrote: I think that you'll have a hard time getting everyone to agree that the universe consists of particles, and particles alone. I would also caution aganst a line of reasoning that states that since particles do not have a will, things made out of a particles cannot have a will. Or that if a thing made of particles has a will, that means that individual particles have a will. Both sides of that statement are uninformative..one being a fallacy of composition, the other a fallacy of division.
A particle may not be able to type this message to you. Obviously, a thing made out of particles can. That a thing made out of particles can type this message to you, does not imply that any single particle can.
Well since particles is all we have discovered, it must be, as I said, be something we haven't discovered yet.
You might be right here, although I don't think that something that only moves when a force is apllied to it suddenly moves on it's own just because there are more of it.
Also it is true that one particle cannot write this message but more together can, however that doesn't mean they have chosen themselves to do so.
If only particles exist, how do you explain the existence of living cells? And even if living cells exist, how do explain the existence living tissues composed of cells let alone organs made up of systems of tissues? For that matter how do you explain multi cellular creatures. If you can't explain it, obviously we don't exist and the volition we experience as creatures is entirely illusory. No free will is only the tip of the iceberg; it's actually no nothing, all the way down .. except for particles of course. They are free to continue binging around haphazardly.
Nervy matter thinking it can just come together in any old manner that suits it. Doesn't it know that our ability to explain it is paramount? Without a good explanation particles may only bing around chaotically. At least until we can explain how they do more than that they should refrain from all forms of complexity.[/sarcasm]
