[MD] The Quality of Free Will

[Ham Priday]

On Wed, July 20, 2011 at 1:46 PM, "Steven Peterson" 
<peterson.steve at gmail.com> wrote:



> To assert that the self "exists DEPENDENTLY" is to deny
> the free will horn of the traditional free will versus determinism
> dilemma since the whole big deal there was always about
> whether or not an INDEPENDENT self can assert itself,
> i.e. exercise it's free will.  Obviously a value-based metaphysics
> also denies the determinism horn of the traditional SOM
> dilemma as well. ...

What you have concluded above is only half true.  The BEING of an individual 
exists dependently; the SELF of that being is independent (free).

Sensible awareness, despite the brain and nervous system that supports it, 
is not itself a biological entity.  Neither are thoughts, concepts, or 
values.  So you can forget about the "mini-computer 'I' inside your head" 
and start realizing that the world "outside" you (beingness) is a product of 
your Value, instead of the other way around.  Each of us IS an autonomous 
Self with the freedom to choose and the power to objectivize every aspect of 
physical reality.

In the absence of sensible awareness there is no being, no experiential 
(i.e., empirical) reality.  Pirsig himself said as much when he wrote that 
"experience is the leading edge of reality."

Valuistically speaking,
Ham