More generally, we don't know what the will is, what it consists of, we know very well what the atom consists of and even what makes up the brain, but what is will? Perhaps there's a reason we don't know, may be the will is just too positive for us, it will not wait for us to perform tests on it and respond accordingly, the will might even perform its own tests on us. Our approach must be a negative one then, we are not willing to study action but only reaction, and thus see everything as a reaction.
I do not know what the solution to this is, I don't know how to create the microscope that sees positive atoms (ours are neutral) of a positive existence. I am only making a remark on the wrong approach to life, with no hint towards the right one.....am I not then, being negative myself?
No I don't think you're being negative Mr Hima, however nor positive but a mixture of the two. I interpreted your post not as a a remark on the wrong approach to life but rather a raising awareness of the interacting forces, the idea that a focus on the negative is not only upsetting but not logical, irrational and thus utterly pathetic because had it not been for health how would we ever come to comprehend sickness and deem it an independent phenomenon of cause and effect. Had it not been for existence what exactly would "anti-existence" be? and by all means vice versa the positive alone is meaningless, if it is the ever constant how can it be identified?
ReplyDeleteJust one last thing, is the only way to know what will is and what it consists of to 'put it under the microscope'? Just like positive and negative approaches, can't understanding be accessed in a mixture of the empirical but also theoretical approaches?
Amr-The will is discernible only through a person's actions. In fact act and will are the same. Otherwise, one is merely discussing a concept, a word.
ReplyDeleteNothingProfound, I disagree with you; I think identifying the will with the act is saying the same thing as "the will is free". Basically attributing success to willing means that the will always succeeds in producing the action. Voltaire makes a good point that free is the wrong predicate for the will. Moreover, how can the will be strong or weak, it being always successful means it is always strong enough....something we know is not the case.
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