Hello everyone On Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 6:38 PM, Steven Peterson <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > >> dmb says: >> I just don't understand how your mind works. It's simple, Steve. Free will >> is just another way to say that you could have acted differently. Free will >> is, as my dictionary puts it, "the ability to act one's own discretion". As >> I have already said many times, that is all I mean by free will. Every >> dictionary and encyclopedia backs this claim and I don't see any reason why >> the MOQ would defy the english language. Unlike yourself.
Dan: Yes, I would say that free will and "could have acted differently" are both static quality illusions in the MOQ. Once we act, there's no going back. Could have beens and would have beens are regrets, nothing more. Yesterday is gone. And it ain't coming back... > > Steve: > I agree with dmb that free will traditionally defined is a "just > another way to say that you could have acted differently," but I think > dmb is asserting a conception of free will when he says that "could > have acted differently" is the same as Pirsig's formulation of freedom > as the extent to which we follow DQ. He is trying to slip the old > "free will" in the back door of the MOQ, but I could be wrong. I see > "could have acted differently" and following DQ as very different > ideas. One is Pirsig's description of freedom. The other is free will > as it is usually defined. dmb thinks these concepts cash out to the > same thing, but I don't see how that works. > > What I think would help me most would be to understand what the past > conditional "could" refers to in this context. "Could" if only _what_ > were true? I've asked a couple times, but for some reason, dmb doesn't > think "could have acted differently" needs any explication. For me > there is a clear dependence on some conditional, some "if only," > inherent in the word "could." I just can't make sense of "could have > acted differently" without a "could if _what_ were true?" Dan: You seem to be asking if there is some way of going back for a re-do. There isn't. That's why it is important to understand that only when we follow Dynamic Quality is our behavior free. Dynamic Quality is the expanding moment of realization, completely new, completely free, before we've intellectualized it into determined static quality. Could have beens are truth for old men and old women sorrowing over their drinks in the tavern of broken dreams. Please make mine a double... Dan Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
