[MD] Free Will

[Ham Priday]

Steve --


> You didn't will yourself to not want to smoke which was
> what was required in the example I gave. Your value of
> smoking can be trumped by your value of personal health
> if you happen to value one over the other, but you can't
> will yourself to value one over the other. Either you do or
> you don't. You are not free to value smoking over your
> health if you actually value your health more than smoking.

I willed myself not to smoke cigarettes and pipes.  Must I give up cigars in 
order to satisfy your requirements for an example of free will?  There is 
more to will (intention) than simply responding to value.  For instance, it 
requires judgment to prioritize one's values, plus self-control to act upon 
them rationally.  I exercise free choice in both of these functions.  Don't 
you?

Steve:
> If you agree with me that "Man cannot will what we wants..."
> as you say above, then what does it mean to say that his will is free?
> Man wills things but saying that not only does he have will but
> that this will is also free doesn't seem to mean anything. All you
> are saying then is the obvious claim that man has preferences and
> acts on them.  These preferences often conflict and one preference
> often takes precedence over another in given situations. Where
> exactly does freedom come into this?

I can will to work out in the gym every day or not at all.  I choose to 
exercise in the gym once a week and supplement this with daily exercising at 
home.  I can will to correspond with people I don't enjoy talking with, to 
put off mowing the lawn when I don't feel like it, or to shop for a cinnamon 
bun rather than eating a Danish pastry my wife left for me.  Do you deny 
that I am free to make such choices?

But of greater importance to society at large are the moral values one acts 
upon.  Will the citizen cast his vote for a politican who believes in taxing 
the rich to support the poor?  Will the legislator approve a bill to 
legalize gay marriage, abolish capital punishment, or incorporate Sharia 
principles into common law?  Does the home owner whose mortgage is worth 
more than his devalued home simply default on his payments?  Does the 
physician who knows his patient is terminal end the suffering with a lethal 
drug?  The freedom exercised in such value-based actions affects all of us 
and can determine the course of our nation's history.

Weighty thoughts to ponder relative to Free Will, eh?

Freely speaking,
Ham