Talk:Vatican Saying 40

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If a man says everything happens by necessity, he's not only conditioned (one-way) about his deeds but also about his thinking (like a color-blind person is not free in his choice about colors) and he cannot say whether it's true that everything happens by necessity: he cannot consistently object anything, as it's necessary opponents to be mistaken, and also himself to be mistaken, if a daemon or fever makes him to rave. He loses any motivation to self-criticism ("it's my character!") and to a positive dialogue ("man is unamendable!"), as per mechanism and in some ways under quietist predestinarianism, and he would have no reason to engage in one course of action instead of another. For Epicurus "not everything" (me pànta) happens by necessity: the sage has a certain degree of freedom, more than a fool. Freedom is a question of degree, not a metaphysical principle. "If one ascribes this necessity, according to the situation, to the act of admonishing and being admonished, one is not be able to locate its cause [Perì Physeos VIII Pap 1056/697/1191.7. Arrighetti]
We know life started with self-regulation, that is by using a force against itself (multi-way, circular causality): e.g. heat and cooling perspiration by heat. Our neocortical synaptic courses are not hereditary save we are born totally idiotic. Popper says we are free just because we cannot predict the future of our knowledge (not to be conditioned for good by our culture: the 'One-dimensional Man' of Marcusian memory...). He who don't settle down has more 'chances' ... therefore pleasure is in motion.