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Aspaqlaria

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Neither Random nor Predetermined
 
Posted: 07 Jan 2008 03:01 PM CST
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Aspaqlaria/~3/212835903/neither-random-nor-predetermined.shtml


Free Will is difficult to define. Were saying that people make choices that are neither predetermined by outside causes, and yet non-random.  Moshe Koppel, in his book Metahalakhah proves that such a domain exists, but without showing us what that domain might contain.

A random sequence is one whose next element is not predictable given the sequences history so far. But its easy to model, simply say that each it is random. It can be done in very few bits of a programming language.

A sequence that can be reduced to a shorter one is the product of lgorithm. For example:

    10101010101.

You dont need to have every bit listed in order to reproduct the sequence. One need only have a set of bits that mean 10, repeat in ome programming language.

For example:

    1010

Looks like its the old 10, repeat. Until we get to:

    101000101

Now it looks like

    if not a multiple of 5

if odd  1

if even 0

if a multiple of 5 - 0

But then we get some more items:

    10100010111010

So we theorize:

    if not a multiple of 5

if odd  1

if even 0

if a multiple of 5

if odd  0

if even 1

But later on we learn:

    101000101110100010111010101011

The 25th item didnt obey this rule and so our model gets ever more complex as we have more data to work with. We can always explain the sequence in less space than the sequence itself. So it isnt random. However, the description of an infinite expansion of this sequence would be infinite. Its not an algorithm because no finite model exists. They are non-modelable, since neither a coin tosser nor an algorithm will model the resulting output.

There is a middle ground between deterministic and random. If one watches a persons decisions, it will fall into that class.

Dr. Koppel,  following R JB Soloveitchiks approach in Halachic Man,  sees the role of halakhah as that of maximizing free ill.  Man redeems himself through a creative partnership with G-d. That creativity is a product of being non-modelable; our decisions are neither inherent in our nature nor our environment nor random  they are something new, products that our uniquely our creations.

Perhaps the same dichotomy lies behind Euthyphros Dilemma.

To recap my summary of that dilemma from an earlier blog entry:

In his essay Euthyphro, Plato has Socrates ask a young student named Euthyphro, Is what is righteous righteous because the gods love it, or do the gods love it because it is righteous? The Jewish spin would be to ask: Is an act good because HQBH chose to make it a mitzvah, or did Hashem command us to do it because it is good? What is the Source of morality?

The problem is that if you say that an act is good solely because Hashem commanded it, then He had no moral reason to tell us to do one set of things and not another. Can mitzvos be the product of Divine whim, the decision between Thou shalt murder and Thou shalt not entirely without any reason on His part? On the other hand, if there is an overarching definition of good and evil that Hashem conformed to, then we placed something over Him, something that even He is subject to.

Notice how the options presented match the ones Dr Koppel rules out with respect to free will: either Hashems moral choice is predetermined by an outside notion of morality, or His choice is arbitrary.

The resolution I offered to Euthyphros Dilemma was:

I would argue that HQBH created the world with a tachlis, a purpose, He placed each of us in it with a tachlis, and what is righteous is righteous because it is in accordance with furthering that tachlis.

Moral good is thus defined in terms of Hashems purpose behind creating us. Notice again the third alternative is about being purposive. Deterministic behavior is caused by ones past. Random behavior is arbitrary, without particular cause for one outcome over another. By not being modelable, people have the ability to make decisions based upon a desired future.
 


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