The shoddy debate tonight has been blogged into oblivion, I'm sure. From lapel pins to "bittergate," we're all sick of the trivial questions. And from the Iraq war to economics and torture memos, the substantive political questions have been asked, and asked well, by smarter folk than I, right here on DKos and dozens of other excellent blogs.
So I'm tuning out of the politics for a bit and asking you guys for help with a REALLY deep question. Philosophically inclined folks, intellectually curious people, and those of you who have read literally everything else to read on the site (it's happened to me at 4 AM :lol:), feel free to follow me below the fold as I begin the first in a series of rather deeper question and (hopefully) answer sessions.
I've been interested in the nature of reality for quite some time - likely a consequence of growing up with a physicist and engineer (yet devoutly spiritual) Grandpa who took an active interest in my education. Now, I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty of physics here - there are other blogs for that. What I'm interested in is your opinion about the way reality works, and our place in it.
What I'm ultimately shooting for is a cohesive philosophy of life; an analysis of why and how consciousness exists in this physical framework. No small undertaking, to be sure, but there's no reason it can't be us who figures it out.
A lot of the principles I'd like to see us apply to this process are derived from the legacy of science; others from Buddhism, which seeks to attain much the same goal through thought experiments and meditation (consideration of reality in an attempt to understand it). To achieve this, we're going to have to think flexibly, creatively, and open mindedly, hence the title (though of course I also couldn't avoid the cheap play on my username ;) ).
With that in mind, here's my first question for you: how do you define free will?
I will post my own answer in the comments; please post your thoughts before reading mine, and then feel free to join the discourse. :)