For decades sailors stopping at Horta in Portugal’s Azores Islands have painted the names of their boats on the walls and stones around the marina. Carol and I were there in 2001 and I had forgotten that she did too until a reader sent me the top photo a few months ago. Unfortunately I have also forgotten who sent it. That happens when you get old. I have searched my email account without success. So I thank him and I apologize for forgetting. I do not apologize for being old. It was not planned.
The second photo is of a recent visitor who spent most of Wednesday afternoon sitting on the live oak closest to our condo. He flew off from time to time and once when he returned perched on our deck railing for a while. My book of Carolina birds shows only three species. I think he is an adolescent Sharp-shinned Hawk. I quote: “The name comes from the sharp keel on the leading edge of its ‘shin,’ though it is actually below rather than above the bird’s ankle on the tarsus bone of the foot. The tarsus on most birds is round.”
He is the first hawk I have seen here and has not been back.
I am not an expert on birds. If you are and I am wrong in my identification, please leave a comment correcting me.
Larry sent me a link to an article about Stanford University neurobiologist, Robert Sapolsky, who believes that we do not have free will. I thanked him but had already read and bookmarked the article intending to mention it here.
Sapolsky is one of a growing number of scientists who doubt the existence of free will. I come across articles about them from time to time.
I am not a scientist, but from my experience and reading increasingly I have come to suspect that most of who we are and our lives are set at birth and due to chance, a combination of what we were given in the genetic lottery and to whom, where, and when we were born.
Here is the link if you want to consider this yourself.
Whether you do or not may have been determined at birth.
5 comments:
Interesting thought... although it seems (I haven't read his book, so only surmise from the article), Sapolsky believes free will is making a decision without regard to previous experience. If that is the case, I can't imagine the point because I am not sure we are capable. Especially as we age and gain more experience (and education, etc.)
As for not being responsible for a decision because our previous experience may be, in part, out of our control... it doesn't make sense. Every decision is an experience which contributes to our next decision. Something can't come from nothing, but using it to define free will and ultimately arrive at the point that we aren't responsible for our decisions doesn't seem logical.
Thanks for the interesting discussion on “free will” Web and Mark. After short reflection and noting Marks comment that “Something can't come from nothing, but using it to define free will and ultimately arrive at the point that we aren't responsible for our decisions doesn't seem logical.” I am reminded of and informed by the philosophical proofs of Aristotle and Aquinas, so I tend towards Pascal's wager! And with that faith we can enjoy life in love of God and neighbor, thankful for free will and all Gods creation!
What?
Thanks for the link. I enjoyed the article and felt that the last paragraph was a bonus, perhaps requiring another book. There Sapolsky raises the issue that there is no logical or scientific basis for ethics, and that’s a problem for the wholly logical and scientifically minded, like me, and not a problem for folks like your blog reader, Rich Periera.
Thank you, too, to Rich for your comment.
Interesting that a man who has led and still leads an atypical extraordinary life which by comparison to the herd is unmistakably chosen of his own free will is encouraging this philosophical discussion on his blog! Let’s not forget those seven incredible circumnavigations, any one of which would be life’s superlative for most of us. Determinism be damned! This man has an iron and free will as demonstrated!
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