Determinism

[idav]

Adequate determinism, determined by whatever sets the spin of particles.

Those are some super tiny dice but its probabilistic or indeterminate.

 

[Sir Doom]

The 'issue' I came up against was that will appears to be influenced and hence determined, although it is efficient at getting things done.

There are three main influences that I have observed. Physical reality, the will of others, and the results of my past assertions of will. I can't think of any others at the moment, but feel free to hit me in the head with them if I've missed something obvious.

Two out of three of those do nothing to diminish will at all. I'm perfectly comfortable accepting that the rest of you are altering reality in the same way that I can. I think my consideration of this fact is a credit to my character. I see my ability to learn from my past as an enhancement to will, not a reduction of it.

Physical reality certainly plays a different role. But this is why I compare it to molding clay as opposed to creation. I can't change reality's parts. I don't know why they are fixed the way they are, but I'm rather glad all the parts seem to work in very set ways. It allows my will to work. If it were not this way, assertion of will would literally be a fantasy. Such as it is, will is not diminished by the inability to remake or undo the fundamental laws of reality, but is instead made possible by it.

I am fully aware that the current state of reality, including the bits that make up 'me', is a function of The Big Bang (or whatever may have caused that as the case may be), but that deterministic reality was forever altered the moment it determined that life should exist. Now, the universe acts mostly the same... except in these little localized sections of reality where the bits stopped acting like they do everywhere else. Life, intelligence, will.

Now, glass is not merely a happenstance of volcanic activity but an intended result of human ingenuity as well. Now, rocks do not lay about waiting to erode and instead pile around pretty plants by color or get pulverized and reshaped into colossal towers and skateboarding ramps as well. These things don't happen because electrons spin a certain way. They happen because human beings want them to happen.