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How can you regard free will as an illusion but not become terribly depressed and hopeless that you have no actual, non-illusory control over anything?

PersonOfInterest 4 May 21
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No worries. Just sit back, relax and see what your mind comes up with. GROG

GROG Level 6 May 21, 2020
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free will is bullshit. you get to rock the coaster a bit but eventually we're all to suffer the same fate.
"all roads lead to Rome"

So free will should enable one to live forever? You may have consumed too much religion as a child. 😉

@MarkWD thats not even close to what I said. if all you wish to do is confuse then please go elsewhere.

@JeffMesser I assumed death was the fate you said we must all suffer in the end. Didn't you say we don't have free will on that account?

Not trying troll you here but please do block me if you think that.

@MarkWD no, we don't have free will. that is an illusion. if you havent figured that out yet then you need to block me

2

I've never seen a convincing argument whether 'free will'(tm) is an illusion or not. Given that I don't know one way or the other, I choose to act as if it is real -- at least within my sphere of influence -- if it's outside, I don't worry about it.

In a another thread I had a reason to believe up a link to a pdf of the Enchiridion by Epictetus:
Edit -- It's proved harder to find a working link than I expected. Here is a link to the Project Gutenberg page:
[gutenberg.org]
It is a small (~12 pages) writing of Greek Stoic philosophy -- I recommend it.

Could you double check that link? It's not working for me

@PersonOfInterest Thanks. It just failed for me too. I must have damaged it somehow. I'll fix it.

Thank you that is a lovely read 😊

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Sure l do. If l wish to block you l just need to hit the button, free will in motion. ☺

Okay, now I'm curious. Do you think that this post is trolling or sincere?

@PersonOfInterest Don't know, don't care. 😊

3

Never having regarded free will as illusory, I cannot provide you with an answer. Of course I don't think I have omni-free will which would allow me to control my desires, my mood or my interests at every moment. But I would argue within the constraints imposed by my physiology, my nature and my circumstances I freely choose between what druthers I can imagine in every moment of every day. Meh.

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