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To: Hank Kerchief
Your substitution of "selection" and "assent" for choice only reinforces my objection. It's true that our actions and thoughts are constrained by physical laws and our intelligence. However constraint is not the same as limitation. What is possible is not the same as what has been previously thought of or done. We can do things that are not on the list.

Hidden somewhere in this is a argument for evolution, in case it hasn't been noticed. Life is free at many levels to do what hasn't been planned or previously done.
421 posted on 10/08/2003 11:16:49 AM PDT by js1138
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To: js1138
We can do things that are not on the list.

You are going to have to help me out. I suspect I really don't know what you are getting at. Since the non-volitional creatures are precluded from doing anything except what is, "on the list," (that is, the set of automatic behavior instinct provides), only man is required and capable of discovering what is possible, and what the requirements of his life are and choosing how to apply what he learns to his own chosen goals and purposes.

For man, there is no list, only reality and his ability to observe, to reason about what he observes and thereby learn. But all this is not possible except to creatures who are free to choose. Within the limits of physical and logical possibility, for volitional beings, there are no limits and there is no finite list of possibilities.

Where are the limits being able to choose imposes on beings that would not be imposed on them if they could not choose?

I'm not arguing with your point, only trying to discover exactly what it is. I might agree with it if I knew what it was.

Hank

422 posted on 10/08/2003 12:08:15 PM PDT by Hank Kerchief
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