Re: MD Free-will and the Self

From: RISKYBIZ9@aol.com
Date: Sun Aug 25 2002 - 13:55:03 BST


Hi Wim,

W:
I found your 24/8 7:42 -0400 definition of 'free will' helpful:
'free will is the experience of action that is in alignment with one's
definition of one's self'.
I would slightly rephrase it into:
'free will is the experience of correspondence between one's behavior and
one's self-image'.
I reserve the term 'action' for 'motivated behavior'. Motivation is -I
think- not essential to experience free will, but I am not sure about that.
What do you think?
I am not sure either if one can 'define' one's self, either in the sense of
'describing' its limits or in the sense of 'prescribing/creating' it.

R:
I like your rephrasing on all counts. As for the role of motivation, I would
kinda dodge the question and instead divide things on the correspondence
between behavior and self-image. I would guess that motivation could
conceivably fall on either side of the line???

W:
The correspondence between behavior and that 'self-image' is
experienced as 'being true to one's essence, to that what one identifies
with'.

R:
And I would stress that the self-image can shift widely based upon
circumstances and attitude, and that even within the levels that there are
frequently conflicting self-images -- do I dress like my friends tonight [my
cool self] or as my parents want me to dress [my good-family-member self]?

W:
You also wrote:
'free will ... is applied when we sense control/influence of an action'.
'Control' and 'influence' seem to me a bit risky terms however. They seem to
suppose 'causation' instead of its MoQ substitute 'valuing'.

R:
I find the MOQ terminology awkward in common usage.

Thanks for the knowledge!

Rog

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