I’m doing a presentation in my class on “Person and Freedom,” in which I must take the Compatibilist perspective: that of Hobbes and Hume, who argued that freedom of will is compatible with being totally determined in one’s actions. I’ll go into detail later…
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Ooh. Scary and fun.
I like what Neo says in the Matrix, when he says he doesn’t “like” the idea of fate. I certainly don’t. I think in parallel tracks on this subject. Whether or not God knows the future does not in any way have anything to do with whether or not my actions are pre-determined. In other words, to know something will happen is not the same thing as having caused it to happen, except in the case where God created you. If you are a polynomial, and time is a coefficient, then everything you do is not only predetermined, but caused by whatever or whoever caused the polynomial. if however you contain some non-predeterminate element, something chaotic, random, or otherwise non-prederminate, then your actions are not necessarily God’s fault. Or at least, so it seems to me.
What do Hobbes and Hume think on the subject? I’ve always been a little scared to really read philosophy. There are some things I just don’t want to know, and just don’t want to think about.
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— warren · Sep 7, 04:04 PM · #
Yeah, it is kind of fun, just because I am forced to actually take seriously a point of view that I (and most of the people in my class) hold in disdain. I wonder if I can actually be convincing…
I understand what you mean about God’s knowledge not being pre-determining, until you hit the math! I tend to think in graphic analogies instead – I’ll give one for this same explanation someday.
— Catherine · Sep 9, 08:45 AM · #