----- Original Message ----- From: "Miles Jackson" <cqmv at pdx.edu>
This kind of mare's nest of logical paradoxes leads me to the conclusion that freedom is best understood as an ideological precipitate of capitalism. Rather than assuming there is some true, uncorrupted core of freedom once we tear away capitalist social relations, I offer the admittedly disconcerning suggestion that talking about freedom can only reinforce capitalism. I recognize that this is one place where I substantively disagree with ol' Whiskers, but I do have to ask: why is it politically important to engage in the millenia-old determinism vs. free will debate?
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Epictetus said something like(I've been trying to refind this quote for twenty years)that if the good lies in our power, our greatest attainment should not be to be consul or praetor, but to be free.
The search and realization of freedom is the deepest call to human kind. Also, I do not see how what Carrol was talking about had anything to do with determinism vs free will.
Joanna