| Phl 340 / Hms 410. Freedom and Determinism. Class
#5. Th. Jan. 20
Discussion of Pixote
Theme: what notions of freedom aid in deciding how free
Pixote is?
See the list of items again at the bottom of the Pixote study sheet.
It is a check list of things that might be related to inner freedom:
--Information about the context in which one finds
oneself: includes the range of knowledge about possible future courses
of events, about possible consequences of one's action.
--Habits of evaluating one's own decisions and one's action.
--A sense of empowerment, being able to make decisions for
oneself, of being personally responsible for what one does, a sense that
one's choices can make a difference in outcomes.
Question: do these together constitute inner freedom, or is some element
element omitted? [My assumption: though you may have initial answers
at this point, there is a great deal of relevant material yet to be seen,
and - equally important - a process of familiarization with the relevant
ideas before it can jell into a coherent theory of freedom.]
From classroom discussion: it may be useful to
distinguish between 1) the human capacity to make choices, and 2) various
limits on the exercise of that capacity. These are two distinct notions
of what freedom is, or at least two distinct aspects of it.
Discussion prior to the first written assignment.
For a copy of guide sheet and a handout on how to approach
this assignment-
Go to the web site http://homepages.udayton.edu/~barnes/
From there go to the Phl 340 / Hms Freedom and Determinism page
Then click on Writing Assignment Requirements
Near the top of the Writing Assignments page there is another link,
for this 1st assignment: [Assignment #1 -- Specific Guidelines] Click there
to take you to a page of extra guidance.
On the day you hand in this assignment, we will discuss where we are
so far on "freedom."
Fatalism in the religion of India:
Jonah Blank's, Arrow of the Blue-Skinned
God, and the Bhagavad-Gita.
Every person inherits and
perhaps also develops a worldview - a sense of the basic truths and patterns
and powers at work in reality. All decisions that a person makes presuppose
some sense of how reality works, some sense of the basic truths and patterns
and powers. The two epics of India, the Ramayana and the Gita describe
decisions being made in the context of a worldview. The most common worldview
in India explains the life of each person as the outcome of many forces.
Karma and dharma, the stars, and the gods together determine each person's
path of life. To accept this fact, says Jonah Blank, is comforting to most
Hindus.
The notes on the Bhagavad Gita ask
whether you also think that peace of mind comes from renouncing all desires.
The purpose of this question is to have you clarify what your worldview
is, and where you think the individual person fits in it. Would you say
you have freely chosen the worldview that makes most sense to you? Or more
precisely, to what extent have you freely chosen to think as you do about
such questions? There is no way, of course, to give a percentage of how
much freedom and how much unthinkingly accepted worldview has gone into
your decision. The point is to notice how difficult it is to know just
how 'free' we are.
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