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ridgecoyote t1_iw4ayjg wrote

Reply to comment by arkticturtle in A cross between an Existentialist and an Old Testament prophet, Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard urged his "single individual" reader to follow the "highest passion" of faith rather than becoming one of the stereotyped pseudo-individuals of "The Crowd" by thelivingphilosophy

Free will cannot be criticized because criticism itself is dependent upon a will to truth. People talk about free will like it’s such absolutist terms - if there is any environmental constraint or causes, then how can I be free? Freedom, like truth and gravity and substance, is a relative thing. We seek more freedom, we evolve towards freedom and if we are constrained, we struggle against those constraints. It IS possible to choose to confine ourselves or others with our beliefs, but at some point we used our free will to adopt those beliefs.

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arkticturtle t1_iw4wpxu wrote

That doesn't really address much. How is the will somehow outside the realm of causality? Why do you think that is the case?

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ridgecoyote t1_iw7veqd wrote

Causality as such doesn’t exactly exist outside of the will. It’s a tool of human thought used to help us understand the world.

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arkticturtle t1_iw85u0p wrote

Why do you think so?

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ridgecoyote t1_iw87byp wrote

Because I’m a Pragmatist.

From wiki:

Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that considers words and thought as tools and instruments for prediction, problem solving, and action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality.

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arkticturtle t1_iw891r8 wrote

Then how do you make sense of anything whatsoever?

What is being predicted other than reality?

If cause and effect are incorrect then why am I able to repeat experiments and how does change occur?

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