NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/soc/singles/38338

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-28 | 1.8 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!comp.vuw.ac.nz!newshost.wcc.govt.nz!kosmos.wcc.govt.nz!quirke_a
From: [e-mail]
Newsgroups: soc.singles
Subject: Re: Credibility and Trueness
Date: 29 Jan 93 09:44:17 NZST
Organization: Welligton City Council, Public Access.
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[e-mail] (Edward V. Wright) writes:

> Psychology denies the existance of free will because its very
> existance is incompatible with the concept.  Once you recognize
> that human beings have free will, you can explain any human
> behavior with one simple explanation: he chose to do it.  All
> the ids, egos, superegos, hobgoblins, and supernatural forces
> that fill psychology books become superfluous.  (And the writers
> of those books lose their source of income.)

   Ed, don't be an idiot. Psychology centres around the question of *WHY*
someone chooses what they do, and psychiatry attempts to help them modify
their choices to more healthy ones.
   Yes, we have free will. But unless you're saying that the human mind is
a unitary entity with homogenous desires at all levels, then you have to
agree that we can have conflicting urges, the choice between which is vital.
   To put it simply: If part of me wants to rape an attractive female, and
part of me wants to run because she reminds me of my mother, neither of these
is a particularly good activity, despite the fact that I have the free will to
choose either.

--
Tony Quirke, Wellington, New Zealand ([e-mail])
"Only the free have disposition to be truthful.
 Only the truthful have the interest to be just.
 Only the just possess the willpower to be free." - WH Auden.