Dear Avid Bloggers,
I have come upon a question that I feel should be addressed:
When it comes to the idea of Man's free will, I believe that we have the ability to choose our own path. The will is not influenced by anything, not even God. God's teachings and the world around us can only influence, not determine our will.
I've thought long and hard about the subject, and came to the conclusion that our will bases its decisions on its appetites- free and natural. In fact, the free appetite usually follows the natural. By this I mean that God does not decide our fate, he doesn't even decide what we decide! What we choose to do and why is based upon our will, which makes its decisions based upon the appetites.
If anyone is wondering what these appetites are, let me explain. Appetites are the inclination towards something, kind of like having an appetite for food. The Natural Appetite seeks one thing and one thing only- Happiness. This appetite is not based on knowledge or reason, but simply on the inclination towards happiness. When we choose to do something based off of our Natural Appetite, we are doing it for the sake of something good.
Now the Free Appetite on the other hand, is not always inclined for the good. We sometimes make choices that have some downfalls left over. The Free Appetite is really the decision to act or not act. A good example of this is when you have to make the decision between eating a vegetable, or eating candy. Each decision would have a downside to it; Candy tastes delicious but is generally unhealthy for you, and vegetables are healthy but taste icky. Don't get me wrong though, the Free Appetite is just that- FREE! If a decision is not completely inclined towards goodness, we can opt not to choose it.
Our will is really a free appetite with our own reasoning intertwined.We decide and act based on what we will, and what we will cannot be determined by anyone other than ourselves. As our wills choose based on goodness and reason, we decide our own fate!
I'm kinda confused about the natural appetite, does it seek happiness or good? Because something that makes you happy isn't always something that is good.. Like eating a bunch of candy makes you happy, but it isn't very good.
ReplyDelete-Brooke
according to duns scotus, happiness is what is "good" for you. you are right when it means goodness in general, i should have been more specific and said good for the person in question. eating candy is "good" because you enjoy the taste, but is "not good" because you get sick.
ReplyDelete-Anne