Freewill

Physicalism Denies Freewill

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A central premise of the doctrine of physicalism is denial of freewill. Virtually all physicists embrace the doctrine of physicalism. The physicist’s mantra is “particles made me do it.” Basically, you don’t get through physics graduate school unless you buy into “particles made me do it.” This is not surprising because physics is the science of physical, and that quite naturally captures students inside the doctrine of physicalism, unless you resist, but the cost of resistance might include being ostracized from the fellowship of physicists, and membership in that fellowship is strictly enforced, just like cults enforce a belief system and a set of behaviors defined to fit that belief system.

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Where else can we find denial or actual absence of freewill (for example)?

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·???????? Virtually all science, certainly including physics; “particles made me do it,” fine structure constant.

·???????? Physicalism.

o?? Positivist philosophy: although philosophy is generally undecided about virtually everything, including freewill.

o?? Fatalism.

o?? Materialism.

o?? Automatic mechanistic physical causality including deterministic and uncertainty physical causality; the certainty that effects always automatically follow from causes.

o?? Reductionism.

o?? Atomism.

·???????? Mathematics; “shut up and calculate!”

·???????? Thermostats (automatic regulation within pre-determined boundary limits, for instance maintaining body temperature).

·???????? Military (the first commandment: follow orders!).

·???????? Cults (religious and non-religious, for instance academic, social groups, gangs, etc.).

·???????? Slavery.

·???????? Human trafficking.

·???????? Kidnapping.

·???????? Fascism.

·???????? Culture wars; for instance, book banning, laws denying reproductive freedom (banning abortion, even in instances of rape and incest; laws against In-vitro fertilization (IVF), laws against birth control pills and morning after pills, etc.), laws denying voter rights (can’t give a bottle of water to a voter standing in line to vote), homophobic laws (criminalizing same sex partner couplings), discriminatory laws (like white’s only at this drinking fountain), etc.

·???????? Insane asylums; involuntary commitments.

·???????? Court-ordered guardianships.

·???????? Boarding schools.

·???????? Corporate non-disclosure agreements.

·???????? Apocalyptic circumstances literally threatening loss of life, for instance war, famine, genocide, ecocide, etc.

·???????? Any life circumstances of powerlessness, for instance desperation for belonging and acceptance.

·???????? Victims of violent and non-violent crimes.

·???????? Jails and prisons.

·???????? Black ice encountered while driving.

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Necessary absence or suspension of freewill includes (for example):

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·???????? Laws of physics; for instance, thermodynamics, entropy, and Newton’s laws of motion (every physical action has a physical reaction).

·???????? Natural laws; for instance, evolution (natural selection); effects follow causes; entelechy (oak trees only from acorns and acorns only from oak trees; children only from parents and parents only from children); perpetual reconfiguration of now, karma (every spiritual action has a spiritual reaction).

·???????? Cosmic and global conservation; for instance, conservation of meta-information first information; conservation of total mass; conservation of superpositions, etc.

·???????? One way arrow of time; the past.

·???????? Mathematical constants (fine structure constant); mathematical axioms.

·???????? Natural a-priori axioms.

·???????? Truth.

·???????? Facts.

·???????? Order within chaos.

·???????? Social contracts.

·???????? Agreements with yourself and others.

·???????? Asking for help.

·???????? Civil and criminal law enforcement; system of courts.

·???????? Dualism within monism.

·???????? Birth.

·???????? Death.

·???????? Ageing.

·???????? Climate tipping points.

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Yes freewill (for example):

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·???????? Existence of ego consciousness which obviously commands mass by intentionally applying laws of physics.

·???????? Thinking.

·???????? Feeling.

·???????? Making choices.

·???????? Making decisions.

·???????? Acting.

·???????? Intention.

·???????? Attention.

·???????? Vision, goals, strategies, and tactics.

·???????? Imagination.

·???????? Creativity.

·???????? Problem solving.

·???????? Abstraction, naming, defining, describing, explaining, inference, deduction, measurement, etc.

·???????? Meditation (intentionally stop thinking).

·???????? Natural rights.

·???????? Democracy.

·???????? Elections.

·???????? Voting.

·???????? Revolutions.

·???????? Resistance.

·???????? Guerrilla action.

·???????? Disobedience.

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Here are a few preliminary sound logical inferences.

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The undisputed champion of freewill is ego consciousness. You certainly have one, I certainly have one, every human being certainly has one. I’m all in for ego consciousness freewill. Freewill is a spiritual reality. Real = exist + true. I personally testify to the reality of illumination, which is enlightenment of ego consciousness, which is the ultimate sentient feeling certainty of knowledge through identity; I AM THAT.

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Freewill means influence, not control. Freewill does not mean there are no limits. Limits are necessary; boundaries are necessary; agreements are necessary; natural and man-made laws are necessary, otherwise there could be no civilization, no society, not even a physical universe.

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The debate about freewill could not rationally be total perfect freewill vs no freewill at all. Rather, by sound logical inference the debate must be about degrees of freewill and the circumstances that affect the degree of freewill. Degrees of freewill exist within boundaries, limits, structures, and necessities. For instance, your choices if you are healthy are radically changed if you are diagnosed with terminal cancer.

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You can break rules or try to break rules, but there are always consequences, for instance see what happens if you jump off a 30-story building and try to fly. Boundaries, limits, and consequences are not rational denial of freewill, rather, a simple acknowledgment of reality. Real = exist + true. That is not denial of freewill, just acknowledgement of the natural limits, the facts of reality, the is of reality, within which freewill can be manifested.

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Freewill does not permit irrational denial of real, exist or true; freewill does not permit denial of facts, laws of physics, natural laws, mathematical axioms, or natural a-priori axioms. It is necessary, which means that it could not, not be true, that there is an actual reality, now, and that reality was a creation. Reality is perpetually reconfigured now. You can influence that perpetual reconfiguration, but you cannot control it, because you were not the original creator, furthermore, you are not the only player in the game of life. You were simply born into life, and we have virtually zero knowledge of how or why your or anyone’s birth occurs. Of course, we know that a child requires two parents of opposite sex, we know about human reproduction, we know parents come from children as certainly as children come from parents, but why a particular human is born, we do not know; that remains part of the ineffable mystery of life.

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We also know that no human being creates themselves. We also know that every human being born is gifted with a mind, which is a personal private instance of ego consciousness docked to a physical body/brain/central nervous system live organism. We know that is what sentience is, and no machines have it, nor does any instance of artificial intelligence (AI).

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We know that we have only a short time to live, to make choices and act; that is freewill which is one of the inviolable gifts attached to birth. Inviolable means you have it unconditionally and irrevocably until death of the physical body. For each of us the real clock and calendar time begins at birth and ends at death of the physical body. There is no freewill in begin or end, however in between birth and death, all human beings are simultaneously flawed and wonderful. Freewill permits you to do stupid things, and splendid, brilliant things, within limits we each discover, taking one next step after another. Notwithstanding we are mostly off course on our journey through life, most of us eventually figure out that all we intentionally accomplish is 1) to use freewill to choose the direction, 2) use freewill to choose the next step and act, and if you live long enough, almost certainly you will arrive at some of your chosen destinations.

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All beliefs are instances of freewill. Denial of freewill is an instance of freewill!