- #36
Adam
- 65
- 1
Ages ago on another forums I posted this question:
This question, I feel, can be applied to the debate about free will and determinism. Consider all past events as the bars of the cage.
We have a few users here obsessed with power, mental slavery, and the words of dead people. How about we define this mental slavery?
Or better yet, define freedom, and in so doing define its opposite.
A simple question can get us started:
1) Is a man in a cage free, if he has no wish to leave that cage?
It seems to me there are two possible answers:
- A) No. In which case we determine freedom based on the physical.
- B) Yes. In which case freedom is in the mind.
No answers itself.
In the case of B, move forward...
However, if "yes", that gives us one more question:
2) Is the man in the cage aware of a world beyond his cage?
If the man is aware of all the world beyond his cage, and yet chooses to remain in his cage, is he:
- A) Still help captive be fears and such? (which takes us back to 1)
- B) Free, because he has veiwed all options and made a choice?
In the case of B, he is free.
However, if the man is not aware of the world beynd his cage, that gives rise to a third question:
3) Is ignorance bliss?
- A) Ignorance of other options means slavery.
- B) Ignorance of other options does not mean slavery.
Would anyone care to create further logical constructs, or answer the final two questions?
This question, I feel, can be applied to the debate about free will and determinism. Consider all past events as the bars of the cage.