(September 8, 2010 at 7:15 pm)theVOID Wrote: To say we can fight this causal chain of nature, and even decide to ignore the playing out of this scenario by sheer will requires that you believe that part of the human psyche is not part of this causal chain and that it can afffect causal events. This is supernature.
Why can't it affect causal events? In fact, it must do if it's part of the causal chain. That doesn't mean, of course, that the psyche could have been different, but I don't see why the fact that it is part of the causal chain means that the outcome of a decision will always be the same, given the same prior causal chain. The fact that a decision is made results from a causal chain, but the nature of the decision, I'd contend, may differ.
Now, I'm not convinced that this position is correct, and I accept that I may be wrong. But that's where my thinking is at the moment, and I don't think I could ever believe in hard determinism without experiencing cognitive dissonance every time I made a decision. Which is why I don't like it.
'We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.' H.L. Mencken
'False religion' is the ultimate tautology.
'It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.' Mark Twain
'I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.' Abraham Lincoln
'False religion' is the ultimate tautology.
'It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.' Mark Twain
'I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.' Abraham Lincoln
