Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Self-Determinism and Choices of Direction

According to Spinoza, the fundamental principle of behavior of each person is to endeavor to persist in its own being.  Now, in some cases, one has adequate knowledge that a course of action does indeed actualize the principle, while in others, one does not.  Accordingly, in the former, behavior is Self-Determined, while in the latter, it is at least partly determined by some external object or force, e. g. junk food.  On that basis, the occasion on which one believes that one is acting 'freely' is actually constituted by choosing that is abstracted from the reasoning that precedes it, and, hence, involves inadequate knowledge in two respects: that the object of choice conduces to one's well-being, and that one has chosen 'freely', i. e.that one is not, in fact, under the influence of the external object, e. g. the seductive aroma of junk food.  However, Spinoza does not address the scenario in which one has a choice between two courses of action, each of which one knows actualizes the fundamental principle, e. g. two healthful meals.  In such cases, the choice between the two is undetermined, and, hence, can be classified as an instance of Free Will.  So, if the perhaps most formidable of Determinist systems does not preclude Free Will qua choice of one of multiple directions, as has been previously discussed, then arguably none does.

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