Project #1 Free Will

This thread will be dedicated to the topic of Free Will.

It will become one of my major philosophical projects, perhaps of a lifetime. To introduce this concept, I will clarify basic definitions. Firstly, the idea of "freedom" and "willpower" are antithetical. The term "free will" is an oxymoron, like "hot cold" or "lightweight heavy". This is due to the underlying core definitions of "freedom" and "willing toward power, or, willpower".

This is not an "easy" philosophy topic or discussion. Therefore, I do not want many participants interrupting the process, unless you are a self admitted expert at philosophy. Somebody like Satyr can interlude and add, contribute, to this thread. But not many else. I only demand the top thinkers and intellects here. Those who are inferior, should back off and choose "easier" thoughts and ideas. Yes, this is a challenge to the top level of thinkers. Since, obviously, Nietzsche spent a great brunt of his intellect on the topic of willpower. Nietzsche is responsible for refining the idea of "Will". Eventually, nazi germany inherited the idea of "Will" and attempted to "Will" themselves to the height of human power and prosperity, through war. And they came close to winning. Or, didn't they win the ideological war while losing the physical, conventional war? Didn't the nazis justify germanic existence and guarantee a forth Reich?

Willpower is the ideology of the 20th century. This cannot be denied. It is the defining ideology of the time. But in this 21st century, liberalism dominates the world cultural war. And liberalism is the "free" aspect of "Free Will". Liberalism is the "freedom". Conservatism is the "will".

Next I will prescribe the core definitions of these topics:

Core Definitions:

1. Free=Freedom
2. Will=Will Toward Power (WTP)

3. Free=Expansion of Possibility
4. Will=Constriction of Possibility

Freedom is the expansion of possibilities in both their quantities and qualities. Freedom implies all "Choice" of possibility. Therefore you have all possibilities, including both the "best and worst" choices. The freer a human mind is, the more choice it acquires. But there is a cost. Freedom of choice requires a superior, higher imagining faculty. Imagination is similar to intellect, but, not the same. Imagination and intellect are different, if subtly so.

WTP is the constriction, restriction, and shrinking of possibility. Quantity is decreased. Discrimination ensues as the result of Will. The human mind, or any organic cognitive system, begins "choosing" possibilities. Choices are made. The mind begins "closing" opposed to the "opening" of the mind to quantity of choice. As more and more quantities are excluded from the final choice, quality begins to emerge as the result. In so choosing, as an action, a final choice is restricted to either higher or lower quality. Quality is the result of Will.

A superior mind will tend to locate, identify, and utilize the highest quality "choice".
An inferior mind will tend to locate, identify, and utilize the lowest quality "choice".

A choice is, by definition, the restriction of all other choices.

Choice is responsibility. Therefore you and I, we conclude:
5. Choice=Responsibility.
6. Responsibility=Morality.

What is chosen, finally, by an organism, is its responsibility.

Instinct dictates the majority choices of the majority amount of organisms.
Reason is rarest and the most exceptional circumstance of "instinct".
Reason is essentially the realization of an organism's own "instinct", and to act either in accord of instinct, or to resist against it.

You are hungry, and have plentiful amounts of nutritious, delicious food, yet you choose not to eat. Why? What compels you not to eat, to resist your instinct?

For a beautiful woman, she maintains a strict diet. She chooses not to eat, although she can, and is privileged with an abundance of the highest quality foods always around her. Yet she denies her natural instincts. This makes her beautiful compared to average females, who cannot control their instincts. Control of instinct represents higher quality organisms.

Evolution. Hierarchy. Reason. WTP.

Higher and lower "qualities" of choice produces its Value

7. Value=Quality of Choice
8. Evaluation=Discrimination of Quantity+Quality of Choices

To evaluate the universe, or thyself, is to evaluate all comprehended possibilities, and therefore, all comprehended choices. The more powerful the imagination of an individual, the more choices are included within discrimination. The largest possible quantity of choice.

But large quantity of choice does not mean, nor imply, high quality of choice.

Quantity of choice is different, other than, Quality of choice.

Æon wrote:

Core Definitions:

1. Free=Freedom
2. Will=Will Toward Power (WTP)

3. Free=Expansion of Possibility
4. Will=Constriction of Possibility

This is very enlightened, but let me question it...

There are three sandwiches in front of me. Turkey, baloney, tuna. My desire is for tuna. Tuna speaks to me; I want it, badly.

Am I more 'free' for the simple fact that the range of my possibilities is also open to turkey, and baloney? Or am I free simply because, at the core of my being, my heart yearns for Tuna---and that one possibility alone suffices for my 'freedom', where everything else is insignificant? (I would want Tuna, and choose it, even in a deterministic universe where I cannot do otherwise than I actually do, including determine my desires. And Tuna is here, my sole option).

But what if I don't determine my desires...

My desires are what they are, and it's no impact on my 'freedom' to hypothesize that if I was something other than what I am, my desires might be different. There's no ghost in the machine, with a foot in the otherworld. You can't say, "You're not free, because if you were someone else, you'd want this". What does that have to do with MY freedom?

So, is freedom the expansion of possibilities? Or do you only need one?

You need as many choices as possible to become "Free".

Freedom is infinite possibility. Willpower constricts and shrinks possibility into a finite number, and finally, down to one singular complete absolute number.

Your choice, your choosing, your action, your eating, represent your "Will".

Instead of eating a rock and dirt sandwich, a turkey sandwich, a sandwich on fire, a frozen sandwich, a rotten sandwich with worms, out of all the choices you are both aware or unaware of, your mind constrains infinite possibilities into just one, finite realization.

The realization of that possibility, is your choice, and represents your Will To Power.

Æon wrote:

You need as many choices as possible to become "Free".

I want tuna. Why does being at a buffet make me more free?

I WILL tuna. Why is my will in conflict with my freedom, according to you?

Mo wrote:

I want tuna. Why does being at a buffet make me more free?

You don't need to be at the buffet. Are you conscious of the choice to eat a rock and dirt sandwich, or a metal screw sandwich, or get some silverware and eat a metal spoon and fork sandwich? No, your imagination neglects these possibilities. You are not conscious of these "choice". Because they are so "radical". Your brain, your body, your instinct automatically excludes trillions and trillions of choices. You could choose an unbelievable amount of choices. But you do not.

You are not even aware of all that you "do not choose". Instead your will confines your "choice", your freedom, to a narrow selection process. This narrowing of your choice, is your WTP. Your WTP finds the highest "quality", a judgment, surrounding tuna. You choose this out of all, infinite choices.

There are reasons behind your choice, every choice you make in life, in fact. Maybe you haven't tried a goose or duck sandwich. Maybe when you eat a duck sandwich, it will be your new thing, and you'll "choose" it over tuna. Experience is another limiting factor, with your knowledge or lack thereof.

Mo wrote:

I WILL tuna. Why is my will in conflict with my freedom, according to you?

Because your WTP constrains infinite amounts of choices, to just one. From infinite possibility, to one choice. And you act based on this one choice.

Your WTP is your direction in life, the culmination of all your preceding, previous actions. Nature is the sum of all nurturing.

Your WTP is your Becoming.

It is the active, autonomous, "choice" of your life. Every moment you act, is due to a previous choice or set of choices, and these drive your life "forward" to the next choice, to the next, to the next, to the next, etc. Your life is a sum of choices, judgments. These ultimately reflect your morality. What "you" are.

However, many people are not responsible for their lives, nor their choices.

Many people fear judgment and judging, due to christian and humanist indoctrination.

Professor,

It's no constraint on my 'freedom' that at this moment a rock and dirt sandwich isn't in the realm of possibility for me. Why do you disagree?
It is, though, a constraint on possibilities...

Are you sure these are the same thing?

Quote :

Maybe you haven't tried a goose or duck sandwich. Maybe when you eat a duck sandwich, it will be your new thing, and you'll "choose" it over tuna.

This is a good question. Until I know what I want, I'm not free to pursue it---and thus, I'm not 'free'. But when I know what I want, all possibilities will have been narrowed to one. And so freedom isn't infinite possibilities.

Objections?

Yes, you admitted that the dirt and rock sandwich does not enter your realm of choices. But, it is a possibility. You are just unaware of it. Because your brain, and most people, largely ignore all the possibilities that seem ridiculous or far fetched. That doesn't destroy them. That doesn't make them impossible, per se. It is not "impossible" for you to eat a dirt and rock sandwich, just, radical. Most people would never.

But then let's compare your ability to eat a....squid sandwich. Is it a more "realistic" choice? A kangaroo sandwich? A turtle sandwich?

More and more possibilities. What is reality? What is actual? What is the universe? In truth, you and all others, have infinite choice. You have countless, infinite amounts of possibilities to choose from.

But it is your willpower, your identity, your "you", that chooses the tuna sandwich, out of all the infinite amounts of alternative possibilites. Your WTP constrains existence into your metaphysic, your perspective, your worldview, your realized choice.

And you act. You eat the tuna sandwich, largely ignorant to all the choices you will not make, or are simply unaware.

Your imagination is the "free" aspect of your cognition. Imagination is not the same mental faculty as intelligence. There is some difference.

Intelligence is your habit, your instinct, you compulsion to make a value judgment. You go with the tuna sandwich. A safe choice, maybe not the best choice of all, because you have yet to eat duck or goose sandwich, or squid sandwich, but it is the best choice for now, presently.

Your WTP shrinks an infinite amount of possibility, into one choice. You ignore all the rest, and focus on one determined outcome. Your will represents what you are.

1+3. Free=Freedom=Expansion of Possibility
2+4. Will=Will Toward Power (WTP)=Constriction of Possibility
5+6. Choice=Responsibility=Morality

7. Value=Quality of Choice
8. Evaluation=Discrimination of Quantity+Quality of Choices


What can be or become free?

All bodies are not free to act. Because a physical body, by definition of its physical existence, is limited in its motions and actions. For example, a human cannot fly as a bird can, due to the different natures of each body. A physical body is specialized. The same core meaning of specie, Specification. A body is a specification. The mouth of a predator is different than the mouth of its prey. Prey animals are generally herbivores, eating plants. Predator animals are generally carnivores, eating herbivore animals.

Therefore bodies are not free. But, bodies can become manipulated. A body changes, through maturation. A body can stretch or reform itself, in small ways. Some animals transform themselves greatly, like a caterpillar maturing into a butterfly. The human body has little transformation by comparison. The human specie is not evolved to act as other, lesser, inferior animals. But instead, the human specie has come to rely heavily on technology. Man, himself, does not fly as a bird or mosquito. Instead man invents an airplane, and flies using his techne.

In this sense, mankind is freest in the sense of his mind, not his body. The freedom of man revolves around his cognition and imagination. He does not transform himself, but instead, transforms the environment, or creates artifice. Science. Philosophy. Religion. Techne.

Æon wrote:

Core Definitions:

1. Free=Freedom
2. Will=Will Toward Power (WTP)

3. Free=Expansion of Possibility
4. Will=Constriction of Possibility

I don't know what new information I get from defining free as freedom, both forms of the same root. Then we have freedom being the expansion of possibility. So we move from a state to a change over time. A bit like the difference between velocity and acceleration, but I am not sure what do to with it, perhaps it will become clear below.

Will now is the constriction of possibility. It would seem to me that one could will towards a state with more options. Especially if one desired options, say in a fight or flight.

Quote :

Freedom is the expansion of possibilities in both their quantities and qualities.  Freedom implies all "Choice" of possibility.  Therefore you have all possibilities, including both the "best and worst" choices.  The freer a human mind is, the more choice it acquires.  But there is a cost.  Freedom of choice requires a superior, higher imagining faculty.  Imagination is similar to intellect, but, not the same.  Imagination and intellect are different, if subtly so.

You refer to imagination as a cost - a kind of effect, perhaps negative - but also it seems as a something required for freedom of choice. It seems to be both cause and effect, though I may have misread. And what are you calling imagination and intellect?

Quote :

WTP is the constriction, restriction, and shrinking of possibility.  Quantity is decreased.  Discrimination ensues as the result of Will.  The human mind, or any organic cognitive system, begins "choosing" possibilities.  Choices are made.  The mind begins "closing" opposed to the "opening" of the mind to quantity of choice.  As more and more quantities are excluded from the final choice, quality begins to emerge as the result.  In so choosing, as an action, a final choice is restricted to either higher or lower quality.  Quality is the result of Will.

If you make a choice, you didn't make the other choices, and so what seemed like branching paths, no longer seem that way, if one is imagining it this way. ON the other hand it is the next second and one is making the next choice.

There is no outside of reality, looking in, not choosing, then choosing and narrowing the field.

Quote :

A superior mind will tend to locate, identify, and utilize the highest quality "choice".
An inferior mind will tend to locate, identify, and utilize the lowest quality "choice".

A choice is, by definition, the restriction of all other choices.

Choice is responsibility.  Therefore you and I, we conclude:
5. Choice=Responsibility.
6. Responsibility=Morality.

What is chosen, finally, by an organism, is its responsibility.

And thus choice is morality. What do you mean by these equals here?

Quote :

Instinct dictates the majority choices of the majority amount of organisms.
Reason is rarest and the most exceptional circumstance of "instinct".

Is it instinct or not?

Quote :

Reason is essentially the realization of an organism's own "instinct", and to act either in accord of instinct, or to resist against it.

So not a lot of freedom, given there are two options.

Quote :

You are hungry, and have plentiful amounts of nutritious, delicious food, yet you choose not to eat.  Why?  What compels you not to eat, to resist your instinct?

For a beautiful woman, she maintains a strict diet.  She chooses not to eat, although she can, and is privileged with an abundance of the highest quality foods always around her.  Yet she denies her natural instincts.  This makes her beautiful compared to average females, who cannot control their instincts.  Control of instinct represents higher quality organisms.

Or they have stronger essence in them and need more than shallow values to reduce their enjoyment of life for this decades fads of beauty.

And then there is the whole glossed over complexity around why a person might eat more than actually feels right for their bodies. What is actually going on in these
average women, if they are eating too much or are not active enough or whatever. And all the possible reasons a woman might decide to go against herself, some of which can be very ugly.

And then the acceptance that there must be two parts, the beast/body self and the reasoning mind, split. We could explain this in brain parts.

IN this end it seems to me you are positing the only true or good freedom is to choose to not quite be oneself.

Æon wrote:

Mo wrote:

I want tuna. Why does being at a buffet make me more free?

You don't need to be at the buffet.  Are you conscious of the choice to eat a rock and dirt sandwich, or a metal screw sandwich, or get some silverware and eat a metal spoon and fork sandwich?  No, your imagination neglects these possibilities.  You are not conscious of these "choice".  Because they are so "radical".  Your brain, your body, your instinct automatically excludes trillions and trillions of choices.  You could choose an unbelievable amount of choices.  But you do not.

You are not even aware of all that you "do not choose".  Instead your will confines your "choice", your freedom, to a narrow selection process.  This narrowing of your choice, is your WTP.  Your WTP finds the highest "quality", a judgment, surrounding tuna.  You choose this out of all, infinite choices.

It might be wtp eliminating choices, or blindness, or refusal to notice, or denial.

The WTP is the honing or sharpening of your essence.

You become more and more determined to choose actions in your life, that coincide with your route, your path, toward power. For example, you eat healthy, nutritious food, or high calorie, high protein food, as a means of attaining power. Eating, satiating hunger, is just one small aspect of WTP.

WTP is also involved in all your other life choices.

Do you pursue girl A or girl B to fuck. Which one is more attractive, healthier, more beautiful? Which pussy offers the highest possibility? The highest quality?

WTP is the compass, directing your essence toward its Ideal. Your ideal is your virtue. Your realization of power.


Different people live lives by different principles and purposes, representing their Virtue.

For example, some men may find power in truth, honesty, war, strength, elegance, seduction, creativity, artistry, etc.

Different men utilize different powers.

The comic "superheroes" are exaggerated forms of this highest quality WTP. For example in "X-men", different mutants have different "super powers". These are the different types of "power" that different men realize with accord to their spirit, genes, genetics. If you are strong, then use your muscles. If you are fast, then use your speed. If you are charismatic, then use your voice. If you are smart, then use your brain. Etc.

Power is realized by all organisms through various means. Adaptability. Efficiency.

Kovacs wrote:

And what are you calling imagination and intellect?

I need to define the difference later. Because there are a bunch of other more important definitions to distinguish first. I will come around to imagination and intellect later.

Kovacs wrote:

What do you mean by these equals here?

I'm connecting freedom and WTP with choice, then choice to responsibility, then responsibility to morality.

Morality is the course of action that individual organisms take, over a lifetime, representing the overall "determination" of the organism.

Kovacs wrote:

Is it instinct or not?

Reason is the most evolved "end" of instinct, like the end point on a tail, or an apex.
Reason is the culmination of instinct, after passing through the intellect, logic, and rationality of the animal.

Reason is based on cognition. But not all organisms and animals have cognition. Not all animals can "reason" in terms of "sensing, thinking, feeling".

Redefinition:

1. Free=Freedom=Expansion of Awareness of Possibility=Open Mindedness
2. Will=Will Toward Power=Shrinking of Awareness of Possibility=Close Mindedness

After the course of discussion so far, I need to review a few factors. Freedom is not a matter of a few choices, between baloney, turkey, and tuna sandwiches. Freedom is a matter of awareness of possibilities. These three possible sandwiches represent a small number of choice, 3. There are 3 choices here. But are there only 3? No, there are infinite choices. You could choose to eat a shark meat sandwich, a squid sandwich, a rabbit sandwich, a goose sandwich, etc. You could expand your choices and possibilities. But your awareness is not always "open". You don't think of dirt and rock sandwich. You don't think of fork and spoon silverware sandwich. You don't think of infinite other choices and possibilities. Instead, your body, your brain, your mind, has constrained your choice into your habit. You have a dietary habit. You prefer the tuna sandwich. You prefer a few dominant choices. And these choices dominate your experience and lifestyle.

Your WTP, your will, represents this constraint of choice. You act. You do. You live your life, according to your WTP. Your WTP finds worth and value through your choices. Kovacs mentioned over eating or under eating. A man may find it in his own, personal, individual interest to over eat, and stuff himself with lots of calories. A woman may do the opposite, and starve herself willfully. Why does she do this? Why does she go "reverse" to the direction of the man? Well, a woman finds power in life in her beauty, her form. If she is sexually attractive, beautiful, thin, then this is how females generally find their power in life. This is a woman's willing toward power. She is a sex object, and in becoming so, she seduces men. She finds a weakness in men, through beauty. Through sexual attraction. So the WTP of a male is not the WTP of a female, and vice versa.

In the next section, I need to extrapolate on the definition of possibilities and probabilities.