[MD] Free will according to the MOQ

[david buchanan]

Andre quoted Pirsig on free will in the MOQ (from Lila's Child):

Hugo:
"In my view, "free will" is a term that can only be used of self-conscious (self reflective) creatures. "Will" is a term we may use of any organism- of any autonomous entity- describing the goal involved in autonomy. And "free will" is the ability to change that goal; the ability of the autonomous entity to chose between more than one predetermined (as for that entity) goal" (p 216)


Pirsig's response:
"Traditionally, this is the meaning of free will. But the MOQ can argue that free will exists at all levels with increasing freedom to make choices as one ascends the levels. At the lowest inorganic level, the freedom is so small that it can be said that nature follows laws but the quantum theory shows that within the laws the freedom is still there..." (Annotn 75)


dmb says:
Thanks, Andre. Nice work, as usual.

This is what I've been saying all along. It probably won't convince Steve, but I think these sentences are more than enough to defeat his position. I also think these lines don't add anything to the explanation as it's given in Lila. These lines neatly summarize the MOQ's reformulation of free will and the only notable difference is that he actually uses the term "free will". 

In Lila's Child, he says,..."free will exists at all levels with increasing freedom to make choices as one ascends the levels."...


In Lila, he says the same thing,..
 "...even at the most fundamental level of the universe, static patterns of values and moral judgements are identical. The 'Laws of Nature' are moral laws. OF COURSE IT SOUNDS PECULIAR AT FIRST and awkward and unnecessary to say that hydrogen and oxygen form water because it is moral to do so. But it is no less peculiar and awkward and unnecessary than to say chemistry professors smoke pipes and go to movies because irresistible cause-and-effect forces of the cosmos force them to do it. IN THE PAST the LOGIC HAS BEEN that if chemistry professors are composed exclusively of atoms and if atoms follow only the laws of cause and effect, then chemistry professors must follow the laws of cause and effect too. But his logic can be applied in A REVERSE DIRECTION. We can just as easily deduce the morality of atoms from the observation that chemistry professor are, in general, moral. If chemistry professors EXERCISE CHOICE, and chemistry professors are composed exclusively of atoms, then it follows that ATOMS MUST EXERCISE CHOICE TOO." (I had already added the emphasis when presenting this quote to Steve a month ago.)