Do we really have free will or are our actions determined by our environment that we live in?

If you think your free, why do you think your free? If you think things are determined then why do you think they are determined?

Can love ever be a bad thing?

ooo, cool thread!

hmm... let's see

yeah, love can be a bad thing. if one is really protective of oneself, they'd view love as a bad thing, because it can be a cause for them to open up.

love can also be bad when it causes fear and anxiety, but if these are overcome, it becomes a good thing.

i have a theory. basically, it says that everything can be logically connected through antithesis. take something really good for example, like... ... life. life is good because it means that we exist and are autonomous. it can be bad because it creates an opportunity for pain and suffering.

it's a really bad example, but i think it illustrates my point.

First you would have to define love. There are many things people call "love." Co-dependance, martyrdom, jealousy, etc. I assume you were talking about romantic love?

I think love is different in definition for everyone and the answer to your question is as diverse as the people who define it.

I realize I'm getting into the moral absolute discussion a bit late, but does anyone agree with the idea of parenthood as an absolute, i.e., you are morally required to provide for your children?

I thought you where moor then morally required to provide for your children. I thought it was law that you did. Not that you would know that in how some ppl bring up there kids. But do you mean not just the basics like food and drink. But they should feel they are morally obliged to put them fro uni as well?

Yea I can see what you mean, I love the word antithesis just btw

I think love is good and can never be bad in a way.. Whenever you imagine a scenario in which love supposedly turns bad, like when it becomes obsessive, it's not really love anymore it's more a corruption of what love is not love itself, right?

I can't define love but I was thinking of love in general, even brotherly love and love for your fellow human being.

You know it's interesting that we only have one word for love which is stupid, the Eskimos have 12 words for snow we should have the same for love as many confusing and similar things it can mean.. By the time love become something harmful, it shouldn't be called love anymore in my opinion because it's something entirely different

Yea I would, I remember I read James Rachels' challenge to cultural relativism and in it he gave some morals that were universal to every culture because they were necessary components to even have a society, like they must value truthfulness to some extent or else you would never know if someone was telling the truth and there would be no reason to consort with others in a societal fashion, and I remember, it was required for a society to care for their children in some way.

Yea that's a good one it fits with Kant, if everyone in the world cared for their children I would think it would be a better world right?

Well I can't think of a reason at the moment why it couldn't be a moral absolute but I will think about it,lol

I don't know, that can be awfully complicated some people don't want to go to uni maybe moral obligations end at the point in which the child can take care of itself?

Well maybe every parent should take care of there child tell such time they have a great job and good pay? Not just tell the child is old enough to feed its self and cross a road? Personally I think if you decide to have a child you are there for taking a responsibility on for the rest of your life. I mean even to help out with your grandchildren if you get any would be of help to your child. just like a dog, its for life not just for Christmas or 16 years.

It is a lifestyle choice you are making by having a child after all.

This post was last modified: 06-11-2008 04:46 AM by Bluey.

Technically, we do have free will. Life is nothing more then a giant chemical reaction. MANY things we do are controlled by these reactions, chemicals in your brain mix and move, give short bursts of electricity to our verves, which makes us move. It makes us hungry, it makes us think.

Now at first, one would assume we don't really have free will, as the chemical reaction are played out naturally, not by us. But that is simply incorrect.

If I were to shout too you, or start talking to you. You would hear me and reply, or look back, etc. I had absolutely NO contact to you though. No chemical reactions happened because of me addressing you. This must logically mean that we do, indeed, have free will.

Sleep on that.

Technically, we do have free will. Life is nothing more then a giant chemical reaction. MANY things we do are controlled by these reactions, chemicals in your brain mix and move, give short bursts of electricity to our verves, which makes us move. It makes us hungry, it makes us think.

Now at first, one would assume we don't really have free will, as the chemical reaction are played out naturally, not by us. But that is simply incorrect.

If I were to shout too you, or start talking to you. You would hear me and reply, or look back, etc. I had absolutely NO contact to you though. No chemical reactions happened because of me addressing you. This must logically mean that we do, indeed, have free will.

Sleep on that.

Actually if I shout at you, the sound travels through your ear where it's vibration stimulates various sensory organs to produce various chemicals that the brain takes in, interprets and processes as sound, so you see everything is eventually chemicals in the brain

So the question of free will, is really whether we have control over our path in life or do the chemicals make the decisions and we just have the illusion of free will?

Cause we think we could have made the opposite decision of what we did make even in everyday decision like what to have for breakfast, but could we really have?

I honestly don't know, I used to think we have free will and I'm still semi confiednt we do but have no real way of proving it..