Hey terrans, I've got something on my mind, so pardon the abruptness. I'm going to get right into that “Human Freedom” book I've been reading.
Something about it bothers me. The guy starts his historical survey with that Augustine guy, and actually, I get it. Really I do. It makes sense. Da big Au-G. He seems like something of a bridge in your world, right? a human segue from classic thought to that of his ages and then to thought of ages to come. Maybe landmark is better analogy? referring back to all the antecedent thought he drew upon? something of a culmination? Eh. Maybe that's too far. Either way, I get it, but I'm disappointed (to no fault of the author!). I'll explain.
The debate on human freedom is very different on my world. (My original world, I should say. There have been a few.) There, this freedom talk or free-will talk was all about our paths, our yet-to-be histories. It was about whether a person was free or bound to their path.
Here, on Terra/Earth/whatever, freedom is more thought of in terms of the ability to will (whether to operate apart from external determination or just without interference or something like that). That simply IS freedom. There, people did make similar points, say, about prior material conditions determining their every step, but that wasn't the bondage, itself. It was an excuse, a way of claiming they were bound to their bad path.
So, in my world, human freedom talk is more course than causation. The point is, I was hoping maybe your ancients had contributions to that conversation as well. I guess I’ll have to wait and see, Right now, it's time to cram. and get some things done before it's time for that Monday Masto-Mac-n-Cheese.
– Pen