Conatus: REVISED EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

we choose and the universe is just all these choices enacted through us, as embodied consciousness. So, in this view therefore, we are utterly free as agents. But also, the universe is utterly compelled by our choices. It’s this that makes value a reality, because, as stated at the start of the chapter, if value is innate to the universe yet we had no free choice as agents then it’s difficult to see how this would be any better than just random chance. With value and free will, on the other hand, we are gifted with the opportunity to derive meaning and purpose and to set our ethics and morality up in relation to these.

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