A fellow Tippling Philosopher with whom I am having a long and protracted debate on free will sent me a poem he wrote on where we were at a bout a month ago on free will. He styles himself as a linguist and humanities man, quite explicitly, and this was true to form. I thought it would be amusing to put my riposte in poetic form!<\/p>\n
It started with my syllogism against free will:<\/p>\n
(1) Every human choice or action is an event.
\n(2) Every event has its explanatory cause.
\n(3) Therefore, every human choice or action has its explanatory cause.
\nBuilding upon (3), we have our second syllogism:
\n(3) Every human choice or action has its explanatory cause.
\n(4) To have explanatory cause is not to be free.
\n(5) Therefore, human choice or action is not free.v<\/p>\n
Here is Guy’s poetic attack:<\/p>\n
2) Every event has its explanatory cause<\/p>\n
By whose decree?
\nDo chains only come in circles like the golden chain on your wrist?
\nThe chains that bear anchors aren’t circles.
\nThey have a beginning and an end.
\nThey terminate in lonely vacancy,
\nWhere the final link finds it dignity.
\nThey protrude into the freedom of the air,
\nColluding with the others.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nTo which I replied:<\/p>\n
2) Every event has its explanatory cause
\nA reality Guy, indeed, ignores
\nBy whose decree?<\/i>\u00a0He says to me<\/span>
\nWhy, by observation, common sense and rationality<\/span>
\nYou see, without causality, science and its method are impotent,<\/span>
\nAnd we must question any scientist\u2019s noble intent<\/span>
\nTo seek the answers as to why things happen (you know, things adhering to laws)<\/span>
\nWhen really Guy is claiming there could be a reasonless \u2018just because\u2019!<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nDo chains only come in circles like the golden chain on your wrist?<\/i>\u00a0He asks.<\/span>
\nMunchausen\u2019s Trilemma sets to answer this, that’s it’s task:<\/span>
\nIt claims things are only grounded in assertion, circle or an infinite regress<\/span>
\nBut brute assertion makes, of free will, such a mess.<\/span>
\n
\nThe chains that bear anchors aren’t circle,\u00a0<\/i>he opines
\n<\/i>Without realising that his anchors, if they were accepted (they’re not) as fine<\/span>
\nWould only give him brute arbitrary a-rationality<\/span>
\nWhich is to free will like the moon is to nationality.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nThey have a beginning and an end,\u00a0<\/i>he continues
\nThey terminate in lonely vacancy,<\/i>\u00a0Ok, so the sinews<\/span>
\nOf my furrowed brow continually flex,<\/span>
\nI mean, come on, this ain\u2019t so complex!<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/i>
\nWhere the final link finds it dignity,<\/i>\u00a0by which he claims<\/span>
\nThat his anchors magically contain<\/span>
\nRationality, and reasonable grounding<\/span>
\nWhen, as you can see, only brute a-rational floundering<\/span>
\nBases his freely willed decisions, and that\u2019s even if<\/span>
\nI allow him that brute fact beginning, that abrupt and uncaused cliff<\/span>
\nWhich starts his causal chain in motion,\u00a0<\/span>
\nBut has itself appeared out of a causal vacuum ocean.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nThey protrude into the freedom of the air,<\/i>
\nColluding with the other<\/i>, he declares<\/span>
\nAs if his ruminations make any sense of grounding\u00a0<\/span>
\nFreely will decisions in reason (for fear of sounding<\/span>
\nLike a stuck record, I confess).<\/span>
\nAnyway, he\u2019s got his work cut out if he seeks to impress.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fellow Tippling Philosopher with whom I am having a long and protracted debate on free will sent me a poem he wrote on where we were at a bout a month ago on free will. He styles himself as a linguist and humanities man, quite explicitly, and this was true to form. I thought it would be amusing to put my riposte in poetic form!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1054,8,212],"tags":[52,58,435,1135,1117],"class_list":["post-3699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-free-will-and-determinism","category-general-philosophy","tag-determinism","tag-free-will","tag-libertarian-free-will","tag-poetry","tag-tippling-philosophers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/tippling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}