06 February 2010

FRAGMENTS OF PHILOSOPHY: FREEDOM OR OPEN FUTURE AND UNWILLINGNESS

If we see an eagle flying in the sky we think it as wild and free: nobody has been able to catch it. So, if one hasn't been caught and prevented to go wherever one wants by some external factor, one is wild and free. Thus, his or her future is open.

More exactly, their future wouldn't been determined beforehand. Thus, they will not become as something  materializing in the future person which means their social identity aren't decided by someone else. For example, parents' order their son will become a doctor will come true if their son become a doctor as adult. When their thought materializes in the future, the son as doctor makes their thought true. But then their son's future wasn't open to him but determined.

Getting ahead on one's ca-
reer is just a kind idea in mi-
nd. The career means you 
haven't choices. 

Furthermore, the career limits one's number of possibles alternatives and, therefore, one's future is not open. If it's known beforehand what Mrs Jones becomes in the future, her future is not open. So foreknowledge destroys one's freedom because he or she hasn't choices available.


Let's suppose next an ideal situation in which we can do whatever we want. Yes indeed! Anything You want. Nice, isn't it? My dreams come true, you are shouting.


But in the real world, in this actual world humans don't lack moral understanding. That is: humanity implies morality; morality implies non-natural; therefore, humanity implies non-natural.

It's a brutal fact that we use moral words and grasp and follow moral judgments. Many times we don't want to do whatever we can in a particular situation. So we limit and prevent our freedom to act in certain way. So we aren't unlimited free agents.

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