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The Forum > Article Comments > Joe Biden won the 2020 election against Donald Trump, when Kamala Harris, also a Democrat, could not in 2024? Why? > Comments

Joe Biden won the 2020 election against Donald Trump, when Kamala Harris, also a Democrat, could not in 2024? Why? : Comments

By Peter Bowden, published 27/11/2024

There are a multitude of eminent people who have argued whether or not we have free will. This paper sets out the assertions of these writers, both for and against.

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Good grief Peter, of course we have free will, and of course there are limits to it - we can't just jump off the roof and fly just because we want to.

But even though it has its limits, we absolutely do have free will and everybody, absolutely everybody - Sam Harris and all the others who claim to be determinists included - actually do, functionally, believe in free will too.

It is impossible to live and talk coherently as a full-blown determinist. Unless it is we ourselves who are actually controlling what we say and do (and not just prior physical conditions extending back into the infinite past) then nothing we say and do can make any sense whatsoever.

Harris cannot stop contradicting himself. On page 62 of "Free Will" he wrote: “Where people can change, we can demand that they do so”. Huh? If everything is totally determined as he says it is, then nothing about the future can be changed, no matter how much Harris demands it should be!

The thesis of determinism being true is self-defeating. If one asserts that there are valid, comprehensible reasons for believing that determinism is true, then in doing so one shows that determinism must necessarily be false.

So, relax, we absolutely, definitely do have free will. But maybe don't relax too much, because by having free will that also makes us genuinely responsible for much of what we do - good and bad.
Posted by JP, Wednesday, 27 November 2024 11:59:38 AM
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Our soul is shackled to physiology of the body, our free will is shackled to the psychology of the mind.
Man is a tribal creature and thus divorced from freedom permanently.
Posted by diver dan, Wednesday, 27 November 2024 12:44:46 PM
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With nuance:

The soul is shackled to the physiology of the body:

The human soul looks outward from the shackled body and screams for freedom .

Freedom is shackled to the psychology of the mind:= (The ultimate price for freedom is a death wish)!

Death becomes inconsequential to the gains of freedom of oppression from the captor.{There is no freedom without war violence and mayhem, including suicide; all are a search for freedom)!

Religion as a controlling tool to the consequences of freedom:

Christianity and Judaism,

Moses and the Ten Commandments; thou shalt not kill particularly!

Islam:
Thou shall kill the oppressor, specifically stated as Jews and any other opponents to Islam.

Current Middle East war is a religious Crusade by Islam and must be viewed as a religious war for freedom.
Posted by diver dan, Wednesday, 27 November 2024 2:08:17 PM
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Thou shall kill the oppressor, specifically stated as Jews and any other opponents to Islam.
diver dan,
I don't think that's correct. From what I hear & read Islam doesn't see non-Islam as oppressors that should be done away with. Everyone who is not Islam is automatically the enemy without actually being aggressive towards Islam.
Please correct me if that is a wrong perception.
Posted by Indyvidual, Wednesday, 27 November 2024 11:38:41 PM
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because by having free will that also makes us genuinely responsible for much of what we do - good and bad.
JP,
Ideally yes, alas !
Posted by Indyvidual, Wednesday, 27 November 2024 11:53:17 PM
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaM-INFI1RM

My guess is that this will go way over the comprehension of many !
Posted by Indyvidual, Thursday, 28 November 2024 12:33:49 AM
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