[lit-ideas] Re: The Final Finger of Fate
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2006 14:11:40 -0500
I wrote: "'in ipso, per ipso, ex ipso control'" actually that should be in
ipso, per ipsum, ex ipso -- my apologies to all you Latin scholars and to St.
Paul.
Mike Geary
----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Geary
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 1:29 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: The Final Finger of Fate
A.A.
> What laws?
The laws of physics, of course.
Good parenting cannot alter the laws of physics no matter how much you wish
it could.
I see no difference between your 'luck' and my 'fate', both speak of events
beyond our control.
A super-determinist would say (I think) that not only is everything beyond
our control, but that there's no such thing as 'control', not as such, that
there's only what is and what is is 'in ipso, per ipso, ex ipso control' -- or
something like that, or another way of not explaining it: that there are no
laws of physics, there's only physis which is what is because it is as it is.
There's no separable governing principle, there's just physis. I love this
kind of talk. Sounds profound but who knows what it means? I think know why
they say that, but I'm not sure I agree. You say in your post you're a
determinist, but everything you argue argues against that.
A.A. (responding to: "I have no idea to what degree determinism 'determines'
our lives.")
>Luck, how well we're nurtured and how well our genes hold up.
I don't know what this means.
A.A. (responding to: "But maybe we're not determined. Perhaps we are agents
acting variously freely in the world. Are we?")
>If we're free agents, then we're evil. Thrown out of Grace, etc.
I don't know what this means either.
A.A.(responding to: "We don't have any choice but to live our lives as though
we are creatures of free will.")
>Then we're evil. Or lying to ourselves.
I don't know what this means either.
Mike Geary
Memphis
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