Would Barney have preferred he said “We are the Masters of our Domain”?
I like the gag, but disagree with Barney’s point. “Controlling our own Destiny” may (or may not) be an oxymoron, but it’s idiomatically useful. It’s no worse than “Our Fate is in our hands.” Destiny needs a helping hand now and then, or else Alexander could have conquered the Known World while never getting out of bed. Destiny/Fate must be responsive to/susceptible to individual actions and choices, or else you deny Free Will. At the very most, I’d go along with Hamlet’s “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.” Even if 90% of what happens to you is beyond your ability to influence, that still leaves 10% you can control (or at least modify).
Anyone up for a philosophical argument? This IS “Barney and Clyde”, after all…
Neurologically, there’s also evidence suggesting that Free Will is illusory, in that we have no control over the firing of individual neurons which, through their collective actions, tip the balance between one “voluntary” action or another. Although we cannot hope to parse out exactly what combination or volume of stimuli will trigger a “willed” response, it’s possible that, at root, behavior is fundamentally mechanistic; not “predetermined”, but inalterable nonetheless.
If you lie in bed all day rather than get up and go to work, then it was the neurons in your brain that “forced” you into that choice. If you get up and go to work rather than lie in bed all day, likewise it was your brain cells that “made you” do that. And if you “choose” to do neither, but catch the first train to New Orleans to celebrate and early Mardi Gras, likewise that was no “choice.” However, if you “believe” you have Free Will it is, for all practical purposes the same as “having” it, and a suspicion that your actions might REALLY be mechanistically determined does not result in any subjective change in behavior. So (and I acknowledge that this IS an oxymoron), my position has been “We have no choice but to act as if we have Free Will.”
11256 over 12 years ago
wow!
fritzoid Premium Member over 12 years ago
Would Barney have preferred he said “We are the Masters of our Domain”?
I like the gag, but disagree with Barney’s point. “Controlling our own Destiny” may (or may not) be an oxymoron, but it’s idiomatically useful. It’s no worse than “Our Fate is in our hands.” Destiny needs a helping hand now and then, or else Alexander could have conquered the Known World while never getting out of bed. Destiny/Fate must be responsive to/susceptible to individual actions and choices, or else you deny Free Will. At the very most, I’d go along with Hamlet’s “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.” Even if 90% of what happens to you is beyond your ability to influence, that still leaves 10% you can control (or at least modify).
Anyone up for a philosophical argument? This IS “Barney and Clyde”, after all…
fritzoid Premium Member over 12 years ago
Actually, dearest shytimes2, I type rather slowly. If I could type faster, I’d DROWN the comments fora with my “wisdom.”
fritzoid Premium Member over 12 years ago
Neurologically, there’s also evidence suggesting that Free Will is illusory, in that we have no control over the firing of individual neurons which, through their collective actions, tip the balance between one “voluntary” action or another. Although we cannot hope to parse out exactly what combination or volume of stimuli will trigger a “willed” response, it’s possible that, at root, behavior is fundamentally mechanistic; not “predetermined”, but inalterable nonetheless.
If you lie in bed all day rather than get up and go to work, then it was the neurons in your brain that “forced” you into that choice. If you get up and go to work rather than lie in bed all day, likewise it was your brain cells that “made you” do that. And if you “choose” to do neither, but catch the first train to New Orleans to celebrate and early Mardi Gras, likewise that was no “choice.” However, if you “believe” you have Free Will it is, for all practical purposes the same as “having” it, and a suspicion that your actions might REALLY be mechanistically determined does not result in any subjective change in behavior. So (and I acknowledge that this IS an oxymoron), my position has been “We have no choice but to act as if we have Free Will.”
BerlinBlues over 12 years ago
Now I have a headache, thanks guys.