Posted by jojo on November 20, 2000, at 22:41:07
In reply to Re: Free Will,Responsibility, Especially in Depression, posted by coral on November 20, 2000, at 18:19:43
Coral and B DAY
We all FEEL that Free Will is essential to
our nature, and I think we should act that way.
I'm suggesting that that feeling of
"freedom" is add on, to explain what we're doing.
How do you handle the guilt if you are able to act
differently (Have free will, but don't? How do
you explain not doing the things you think you
should have been doing, earlier in your depression.
You were "Free", but you were of just "such weak
moral character" that you couldn't do what you
thought you should be doing?I'm suggesting that you were only able to come to
an accommodation with those guilt feelings after
something had changed (your understanding, your
neurotransmitters, your chemistry, your "soul")
and then you gave yourself an explanation of how it
happened. It could be the "correct" explanation,
but maybe the "change" came first, then you either
explained it to yourself and acted differently, or
you acted differently and then explained it to
yourself. But I don't believe that you had a
"choice", either before of after the change.Can you point out the errors in my little essay?
poster:jojo
thread:2826
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20001117/msgs/3029.html