I anticipate your next question to be where does free will and “unfree will” come from if not from combinations of particles. My answer is that individual will exists as unextended energy outside spacetime and uses extended energy to actualize itself in spacetime.
All right, so you believe that our will stems from something metaphysical. There’s no way to prove whether this is true or not, so we’ll have to leave it at that.
From a materialist perspective, no, but it can be proved rationally if we think about it. The laws and processes that governed the big bang aren’t observable, and neither are any of the other natural laws that govern the world, but we know they exist through our observations of the material world. The laws of physics aren’t material, but they govern the processes of material world. A particle knows how to behave perfectly according to the laws of physics, but we’ve never found the laws of physics inside a particle.
That’s not proof that our “wills” exist outside of the laws of physics, only that there are many things we do not yet know about the material world. (That might be true, and I would certainly prefer that, but I haven’t seen anything that suggests that it is.) I doubt that we will ever be able to understand how “something” can be created from “nothing” – i.e. there is something outside of what we could possibly comprehend, which I would call “metaphysical” – but I do believe that everything aside from that is (or will be) understandable through materialism.
Yes sorry, I should have included that if we accept that if unextended things exist, then it’s possible to see how wills or souls could exist. I don’t like using the word soul because it comes loaded with a lot of religious baggage and preconceptions, but that’s what I mean, but in an uncreated, primordial sense.
We can understand how “something” came from “nothing” if we understand “nothing” as a special kind of “something” - a completely balanced state of reality where everything is completely balanced at zero. So “everything” is there, but it’s completely balanced so it’s not extended in any way so it’s not materially detectable until the balance is broken and energy becomes extended. So the will, or the soul, exists permanently unextended in this zero state and needs to extend itself into the material world in order to actualize its potential.
I mean the fundamental basis of reality, everything that is real and does exist and is true, but looking at the root of everything, which is energy. What I mean by “nothing” is a state of dimensionless energy. If we ourselves are each and all forces of dimensionless energy that can will things then we can develop free will through consciousness to be our own causes of action.
Let’s assume that this is true. My point is that there is no explanation (at least not one which we are capable of understanding) for how this “dimensionless energy” can exist in the first place. I would also argue that aside from that absolute origin (whatever it is), everything will eventually be comprehensible by humans through materialism (although not necessarily using our current definition of “particles”).
It’s possible because all “positive” energy can be balanced by “negative” energy, so thins can exist without dimensions even though it would seem like there’s nothing there materially. A materialist perspective can help explain dimensional things, but we need to understand the source through reasoning because we cannot through a material analysis.
All right, so you believe that our will stems from something metaphysical. There’s no way to prove whether this is true or not, so we’ll have to leave it at that.
From a materialist perspective, no, but it can be proved rationally if we think about it. The laws and processes that governed the big bang aren’t observable, and neither are any of the other natural laws that govern the world, but we know they exist through our observations of the material world. The laws of physics aren’t material, but they govern the processes of material world. A particle knows how to behave perfectly according to the laws of physics, but we’ve never found the laws of physics inside a particle.
That’s not proof that our “wills” exist outside of the laws of physics, only that there are many things we do not yet know about the material world. (That might be true, and I would certainly prefer that, but I haven’t seen anything that suggests that it is.) I doubt that we will ever be able to understand how “something” can be created from “nothing” – i.e. there is something outside of what we could possibly comprehend, which I would call “metaphysical” – but I do believe that everything aside from that is (or will be) understandable through materialism.
Yes sorry, I should have included that if we accept that if unextended things exist, then it’s possible to see how wills or souls could exist. I don’t like using the word soul because it comes loaded with a lot of religious baggage and preconceptions, but that’s what I mean, but in an uncreated, primordial sense.
We can understand how “something” came from “nothing” if we understand “nothing” as a special kind of “something” - a completely balanced state of reality where everything is completely balanced at zero. So “everything” is there, but it’s completely balanced so it’s not extended in any way so it’s not materially detectable until the balance is broken and energy becomes extended. So the will, or the soul, exists permanently unextended in this zero state and needs to extend itself into the material world in order to actualize its potential.
Not really – we would still be unable to understand how that very first “special kind of something” could exist
I mean the fundamental basis of reality, everything that is real and does exist and is true, but looking at the root of everything, which is energy. What I mean by “nothing” is a state of dimensionless energy. If we ourselves are each and all forces of dimensionless energy that can will things then we can develop free will through consciousness to be our own causes of action.
Let’s assume that this is true. My point is that there is no explanation (at least not one which we are capable of understanding) for how this “dimensionless energy” can exist in the first place. I would also argue that aside from that absolute origin (whatever it is), everything will eventually be comprehensible by humans through materialism (although not necessarily using our current definition of “particles”).
It’s possible because all “positive” energy can be balanced by “negative” energy, so thins can exist without dimensions even though it would seem like there’s nothing there materially. A materialist perspective can help explain dimensional things, but we need to understand the source through reasoning because we cannot through a material analysis.
I don’t think I can make my point any more clear, so we’ll just have to agree to disagree