Multisense Realism

JE: > When I say that when I walk into the park and sense that I can choose whether to go right or left, the reality is that there is only one possible outcome, is not, I think, related to presentism or eternalism…

> Let’s forget these positions. The issue is, regardless of metaphysical stance, how many outcomes will be possible if I actually walk into the park at 11.35 this morning. We are not talking of conceivability. I could conceive that I bifurcated into two people and went both ways. We are talking about what ‘options’ are possible for the universe if we believe that things will obey the laws of physics.

The universe does not just obey the law of physics though. It obeys the laws of biology, zoology, anthropology, psychology, imagination and intuition as well. It obeys the law of conscious intention.

The number of possible outcomes is potentially infinite.

You could walk in a circle. You could walk off the path. You could sit down in front of a tree. You could hail a cab to the airport and go to Spain.

If you are looking for free will you cannot look for it in a sealed box, any more than you can look for Shakespeare in the set of English pronouns and articles.

What if instead of assuming that the universe is built only from the bottom up by dumb Lego parts, we see that the opposite is also true. Legos are designed and manufactured for creative use from the top down as well. All that we have to do is realize that we ourselves are already evidence of top down causality, and to notice that our existence in the universe is impossible as a purely bottom up phenomenon. (“Up” where?)