Choice or Free will - a one minute answer
belief systems, problem solving, stuff, thought experiments Add commentsThe ability to choose or a chosen ability? Is it destiny, fate or what we make of it? When you make choices is it you making the choice or some offensive simulacra?
The answer to this question of course is not answerable in this blog post. Now I did promise to write about rhetoric and use of it in the question form. So why not deal with a very basic rhetorical question? A rhetorical question is one that demonstrates something in the hearer that provokes them to look for the answer in the question. Here is an example:
If a man asks for bread from God he won’t get a snake will he?
That’s what I like about the New American Standard Bible. It has questions in it that I never noticed before. Here’s a better example:
Why do we keep on fighting?
The causal explanation of that question gives rise to more than one possible answer. What about this one:
If I didn’t have a free will I couldn’t type this sentence could I?
You may argue:
How do you know the sentence was pre-determined?
Both statements are designed for maximum rhetorical effect. The really don’t have a one-minute answer do they? Sorry. Somebody once said that problem solving isn’t so much about finding the right answers as it is about asking the right questions. Questions that give rise to solutions that in turn give rise to more questions is what real problem solving is about.
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