#213: Panwillism

#213: Panwillism

I wonder how many other philosophical problems we could solve with this strategy?


Discussion (11)¬

  1. EssBee says:

    YES! ‘Will’ is a primitive constituent of the world (along with matter and mind). It all makes SO much sense… So now not only are rocks conscious, but they possess will, too! This explosion of ‘primitive’ world parts has me wondering what the next one will be!

  2. Simon says:

    I think the major problem with this strategy as applied to free will is that it doesn’t fit empirical evidence. We know that there are circumstances under which people can be made to think they have “free will” even though they aren’t making decisions, and that people make decisions before they have a feeling of having “freely” made them.

  3. chaospet says:

    Ess, the possibilities are endless!

    Simon, that’s consistent with my strategy. I assume you’re referring to famous experiments by Libet and others which purport to show that people’s brains actually make decisions before they consciously ‘feel’ they are making the decisions (actually that interpretation of what’s going on is not at all warranted by the experimental results, but that’s another story). The experimenters of course failed to take into consideration the fact that the parts of the brain that are making the decisions themselves possess free will properties at a primitive, fundamental level, and as component parts of the individual they only enhance the individual’s freedom.

  4. Wm Tanksley says:

    1. I misread the subject as “Panwillisism”.
    2. No philosophical idea is bad enough that it hasn’t been proposed by at least one scientist. Conway and Kochen, in this case. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_will_theorem

    (My limited understanding of the math tells me that assuming they did it all right, there are valid interpretations of quantum theory, such as the Pondicherry Interpretation, in which their locality assumptions don’t hold. Unfortunately, I couldn’t say what that means to their theory. They may be right; I may be crazy.)

    -Wm

  5. chaospet says:

    Wm, I’m sold. Hurray free will for elementary particles!

  6. Florian Cova says:

    Mwahahahahahahahahaha !

  7. Ganolla says:

    Best joke ever! Funny and sharp. Great job, man!

  8. Canuovea says:

    No. Just… No.

  9. Emil says:

    Why didnt i think of this before, yay!

  10. Wm Tanksley says:

    NO — Ganolla, you fed his ego!!!!

  11. chaospet says:

    Mmm yes… I am the best ever!!! Muahahaha! (thanks, Ganolla!)

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