The Philosophical Implications of the Urge to Urinate.

[Mindful]

Are we truly free?

If one thing’s for sure, it’s that I decided what breakfast cereal to eat this morning. I opened the cupboard, Iperused the options, and when I ultimately chose the Honey Bunches of Oats over the Kashi Good Friends, it came from a place of considered judgment, free from external constraints and predetermined laws.

Or did it? This question—about how much people are in charge of their own actions—is among the most central to the human condition. Do we have free will? Are we in control of our destiny? Do we choose the proverbial Honey Bunches of Oats? Or does the cereal—or some other mysterious force in the vast and unknowable universe—choose us?

The Greek playwright Sophocles seemed convinced that people have no real control over their fortunes. The character Oedipus, for example, tries desperately to buck the prophesy that he will kill his father and marry his mother, only to end up doing just that. Shakespeare’s characters, on the other hand, attempt to seize control of their futures.

Cassius encourages Brutus to assassinate Caesar by appealing to his sense of self-responsibility: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are the underlings.”

The Philosophical Implications of the Urge to Urinate - Scientific American

 

[TemplarKormac]

Nature rarely calls on us at a moment of our choosing, my friend.

I do believe I hear the inhabitants of the Rubber Room calling...

 

[Tom Sweetnam]

"Do we choose the proverbial Honey Bunches of Oats? Or does the cereal—or some other mysterious force in the vast and unknowable universe—choose us?"

Yes, the mysterious force in the vast and unknowable universe who convinced you you NEED Honey Bunches of Oats, that you MUST HAVE Honey Bunches of Oats, is called a "marketing director". He's one of the slickest gods in the universe.

 

[I.P.Freely]

"Do we choose the proverbial Honey Bunches of Oats? Or does the cereal—or some other mysterious force in the vast and unknowable universe—choose us?"

Yes, the mysterious force in the vast and unknowable universe who convinced you you NEED Honey Bunches of Oats, that you MUST HAVE Honey Bunches of Oats, is called a "marketing director". He's one of the slickest gods in the universe.

or a big fat spliff.

 

[gtopa1]

We have a limited set of options from which to choose. Within those options we are free to choose.

Greg

 

[Kosh]

Nature rarely calls on us at a moment of our choosing, my friend.

I do believe I hear the inhabitants of the Rubber Room calling...

 

[Mindful]

Nature rarely calls on us at a moment of our choosing, my friend.

I do believe I hear the inhabitants of the Rubber Room calling...

Athens. How apt.

 

[Tom Sweetnam]

or a big fat spliff.

Now I.P., you know that big fat spliffs make terrible existentialists. They make great hackers though, but terrible existentialists.

 

[I.P.Freely]

or a big fat spliff.

Now I.P., you know that big fat spliffs make terrible existentialists. They make great hackers though, but terrible existentialists.

I have wifi