@thysin,
thysin wrote:I love that movie.
To explain a bit more...
If you take a snapshot of time(with some sort of biometric supercomputer), the smallest possible, that recorded every factor in a given situation...let's say it's something like Plinko from the Price is Right. Every single factor, down to the smallest molecule is recorded in this snapshot. Without any outside factors to influence what will happen when the little disc is dropped, that snapshot is basically an arrow pointing to the next slice of time, and that one an arrow for the next....and so on...so in every instance there is the pattern for the next one....either way I suppose it's not really interesting enough because of it's impracticality with today's technology. Only thing I could see messing with this 'free will'....but that's another can of worms.
Almost everything you said falls in line with Leibniz's Monadology. Leibniz even mentions the notion of frew will in the fundamental question "was Caesar free to cross the Rubicon?" Info from an earlier post I did;
To Leibniz, a substance has to be completely self sufficient, hence we come to Leibniz's
Principle of Sufficient Reason. In Leibniz's PSR, everything has; a) a complete explanation, and b) nothing exists which cannot be fully explained. The complete explanation in Leibniz's PSR
must be contained within the substance. There is also complete reason, which entails that a thing has to be necessary and sufficient. Self sufficiency for Leibniz entails that there be some form of
activity (like a change in property or something like that.) Now, applying PSR, any change must be explained with each substance, but also any properties have to be explained
by itself and not by something else. This is where we get the neat Latin phrase from Leibniz
Phenomena bene fundatum (the well founded phenomena). So, essentially take away the fact that substances cannot be explained by substances. Important now is to understand a few points. Now a substance is self-sufficient, but like what was previously said, it has to be a) active, and b) maintain an active
principle. Also, all properties are representations.
Now shift for a second to
notion of monads. What is a monad? There are three kinds, namely entelechies, animal souls, and rational souls. But what essentially is a monad. I assume that it is a natural object. Natural objects are living things like humans, acorns, grass, and stuff like that. What makes them seem natural is that, and remember this from what was said in the first paragraph. They have within themselves the principle for change. A rock would not be a monad to Leibniz, because it is just an aggregate of parts. So anyway, this is where you start to superficially apply the principles of pre-established harmony and such. Pre established harmony is essentially the fact that, according to Leibniz, all monads were created at once at creation. But remember, this is not like how Malebranche explains Pre-established harmony. Malebranche essentially makes god into a busy mechanic constantly fixing a broken machine. Leibniz's conception is?well?perfect and complete from the start, like two clocks whose pendulums swing in concert without connection. Another important point to consider is Leibniz cosmological layout (I'm sure there is a better word, but this is the best I can think of). The universe is a "plenum" which is full with not gaps or missing parts. Within this plenum are the monads, which fill the universe to the brim.
Now the monads. There are entelechies, animal monads, and rational monads (you can substitute monads with soul if you want, they are interchangeable). Entelechies are unconscious, with no growth and reflect the universe confusedly. It has appetition, and is the source of its own internal changes. However, it is
not matter (oddly enough) because it can be divided into parts. Animal monads (souls) are a point at which we spend most of our lives. Animal souls have conscious perception, have memory (the ability to collect instances over time according to Leibniz), and from this basis can form expectations and inductive reasoning. Rational souls go beyond the animal soul, characterized by rationalization, self consciousness, containing the conceptions of "I" or "me" as well as abstraction. Keep in mind that an animal soul has its attributes plus the attributes of entelechies, and the rational soul has what its attributes have plus that of the animal soul and the entelechy.
Remember that a monad is a simple substance. It is quantitative and contains centers of activity (i.e. appetition) in all forms. But now come some of the caveats of monadology. Nothing goes in or out of a monad. It is in a sense preserved. Monads do not interact with each other, though they look like they do? this is a point that you need to understand with the notion of Pre-established harmony. Now the question that should be raised is then which monad is the
cause, or more precisely, which is the
dominant monad. The monad that
causes is the one which reflects the world most accurately. This makes sense if you review the nature of the three types of monads. Now also think of the nature of appetition and cause and effect. Think of a film strip, where the next state of a captured scene is caused by the previous one. Within each "scene" or really "state," is what has, will, and will come to be already within it (i.e. PSR). You then get into the principles of knowledge, which is probably going too far, but that last sentence was what I was essentially getting at.
because predictions can imply forseeing into the future in a very accurate way (Ex: i can predict the future!) even though it is commonly understood as just a guess of the following events.
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