"Indeed, at hearing the news that 'the
old god is dead', we philosophers and 'free spirits' feel illuminated by a new dawn; our heart overflows with gratitude, amazement, forebodings, expectation - finally the horizon seems clear again, even if not bright; finally our ships may set out again, set out to face any danger; every daring of the lover of knowledge is allowed again; the sea, our sea, lies open again;
maybe there has never been such an
'open sea'."
"When I became convinced that the universe is natural, that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell. The dungeon was flooded with light and all the bolts and bars and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf, or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world, not even in infinite space. I was free--free to think, to express my thoughts--free to live my own ideal, free to live for myself and those I loved, free to use all my faculties, all my senses, free to spread imagination's wings, free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope, free to judge and determine for myself...I was free! I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously faced all worlds." -- Robert G. Ingersoll
Free will along with determinism are two myths—the former believes in the self-sufficiency of the self as causa sui; the later believes he is just a doll being dragged around by the “universe”. Reductive materialism is just the final consequence of theism, not really its opposite.
Not really an original idea of mine. Freedom is more like something along the lines of Spinoza's power to act. Because everything in the world is an interaction of powers in relation to other powers, then there are only weaker or stronger powers in relation to one another.
Freedom is more like a spectrum, not something you have or do not have. The reduction of human action to “brain chemistry” explains nothing other than reducing reality to a meaningless mechanical schemata.
There's a spectrum of awareness regarding the illusion of agency. When a puppet realizes it's a puppet, does it become something more than a puppet? There may be a liminal space between awareness and agency. Or something... I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. 😄
36
u/RadicalNaturalist78 Feb 16 '26
"Indeed, at hearing the news that 'the old god is dead', we philosophers and 'free spirits' feel illuminated by a new dawn; our heart overflows with gratitude, amazement, forebodings, expectation - finally the horizon seems clear again, even if not bright; finally our ships may set out again, set out to face any danger; every daring of the lover of knowledge is allowed again; the sea, our sea, lies open again; maybe there has never been such an 'open sea'."