Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Our Greatest Desires: Caused or Chosen?

In my search for reconciliation regarding the free-will and determinism paradox, I have delved deep into questions that probe the very nature of our being. One question that has taken preeminence as of late is the question pertaining to our desires.

I know that any decision we make is based on competing desires but from whence do these desires ultimately originate. Is it merely physical causality? A caused B and B causes C and so forth leading to the set of circumstances creating and influencing our greatest desires. This is the deterministic model but how does quantum mechanics change this picture?

Heisenberg's uncertainty principle dictates that one cannot simultaneously determine the position and momentum of a particle but, quite frankly, am not to certain how this has any bearing in the philosophical realm. It seems to me that this principle only affects the precise observation of causes not the effect of them. I could be wrong; however, but I'd really like to hear why that could be.

In any case, I rest comfortable in the compatibilist view of free-will until someone can concretely relate how the uncertainty principle precludes that possibility.
As I see it, our greatest desires are a result of a combination of environmental and internal causes (chemical, biological, hereditary). Therefore, the factors that bring about our desires are a product if factors within our but also independent of our own volition. Can we be held responsible if it is God that ordained the deterministic causes for our desires and subsequently our decisions. I would say strongly that the answer would be a resounding yes. Why would we not be held accountable for decisions we made? We made them regardless of whether they are preordained or not.

Monday, July 9, 2012

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