MAN IS BOTH AGENT/PRINCIPAL
Is man both an agent and a principal ?
This resolution of man being "both" agent and principal in essential make-up may answer the "free will" versus "deterministic" philosophical schism that has bedeviled so many over time.
Yes. So it seems. Plotinus states:
"But: if the evil in man is involuntary, if their own will has not made them what they are, how can we blame wrongdoers or even reproach their victims with suffering through their own fault?
"If there is a Necessity, bringing about human wickedness either by force of the celestial movement or a rigorous consequence set up by the First Cause, is not the evil a thing rooted in Nature? And if thus the Reason-Principle of the universe is the creator of evil surely all is injustice?
No: men are no doubt involuntary sinners in the sense that they do not actually desire sin; but this does not alter that wrongdoers of their own choice, are, themselves, the agents; it is because they themselves act that sin is their own; if they were not the agents they could not sin.
"The Necessity (held to underlie human wickedness) is not an outer force (actually compelling the individual), but exists only in the sense of a universal relationship.
"Nor is the force of the celestial Movement such as to leave us powerless : if the universe were something outside and apart from us it would stand as its makers willed so that, once the gods had done their part, no man, however impious , could introduce anything contrary to their intention. But, as things are, efficient act does come from men: given the starting Principle, the secondary line, no doubt, is inevitably completed, but each and every principle contributes towards the sequence. Now men are Principles, or, at least, they are moved by their characteristic nature towards all that is good, and that nature is a Principle, a freely acting cause."
P.146-147, THE ENNEADS by Plotinus (1991)
Therefore "acts" make men "agents,"
as "nature" makes man "principals." This entanglements of statuses, itself invokes the "Heisenberg "Uncertainty Principle" of physics; as well as the rational-irrational divide on arithmetic; and the dyad of all living dichotomies!
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
MAN IS AGENT/PRICIPAL
MAN IS BOTH AGENT/PRINCIPAL
Is man both an agent and a principal ?
This resolution of man being "both" agent and principal in essential make-up may answer the "free will" versus "deterministic" philosophical schism that has bedeviled so many over time.
Yes. So it seems. Plotinus states:
"But: if the evil in man is involuntary, if their own will has not made them what they are, how can we blame wrongdoers or even reproach their victims with suffering through their own fault?
"If there is a Necessity, bringing about human wickedness either by force of the celestial movement or a rigorous consequence set up by the First Cause, is not the evil a thing rooted in Nature? And if thus the Reason-Principle of the universe is the creator of evil surely all is injustice?
No: men are no doubt involuntary sinners in the sense that they do not actually desire sin; but this does not alter that wrongdoers of their own choice, are, themselves, the agents; it is because they themselves act that sin is their own; if they were not the agents they could not sin.
"The Necessity (held to underlie human wickedness) is not an outer force (actually compelling the individual), but exists only in the sense of a universal relationship.
"Nor is the force of the celestial Movement such as to leave us powerless : if the universe were something outside and apart from us it would stand as its makers willed so that, once the gods had done their part, no man, however impious , could introduce anything contrary to their intention. But, as things are, efficient act does come from men: given the starting Principle, the secondary line, no doubt, is inevitably completed, but each and every principle contributes towards the sequence. Now men are Principles, or, at least, they are moved by their characteristic nature towards all that is good, and that nature is a Principle, a freely acting cause."
P.146-147, THE ENNEADS by Plotinus (1991)
Therefore "acts" make men "agents,"
as "nature" makes man "principals." This entanglements of statuses, itself invokes the "Heisenberg "Uncertainty Principle" of physics; as well as the rational-irrational divide on arithmetic; and the dyad of all living dichotomies!