oundation or Individual in a Determinate Universe

Foundation or Individual in a Determinate Universe ABSTRACT: The concept presented in this report makes a summary of the author’s attempts to find a solution to the problem of compatibility of determinism and the freedom of human choice. This problem becomes apparently an isoluble paradox if one admits that the notion of freedom of human choice includes negation of the predetermination of decisions taken. Denial of such an inclusion is based on an analysis of the reasons that have led to the notion of freedom of human choice. Basically, this notion is intimately linked with the actual mechanism of decision-making. However, the concept of freedom of human choice is not identical to this mechanism and should be regarded as a†¦show more content†¦However, the ideal is far from reality, and this discrepancy in fact lies at the root of all social problems and necessitates the search for palliative and by no means simple solutions. Philosophers and scientists have been committed, from time immemorial, to the search for, and implementation of, these circuitous solutions... Intellect, however, resolves its tasks staying confined to a determinate flow of human existence. Its freedom of choice has an internal definition (as given above), quite sufficient within the framework of life. Although the sphere of life is part of the Universe (undoubtedly, an infinitesimal part in terms of extent), it is a center of existence for the carriers of life, a focus of their world, a system of reference, and the starting point for comprehending the things as they are. They came into being here, they became aware of their selves here, they became conscious here of their separateness from the surrounding world and their link with it, and they are inalienable from their nature. The standing of humans as a cognitive system has a temporal origin – it is the time when a hierarchy of preferences has emerged. In the human self-consciousness, this creates a sensation that the act of volition is independent of the processes of antecedent preferences; in fact, the previous history of preferences becomes eliminated. But it is precisely the previous history of preferences