tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post3867507895809293110..comments2023-11-07T06:20:12.181-08:00Comments on Tolkien: Medieval and Modern: The Purpose of Free Will"Tolkien: Medieval and Modern"http://www.blogger.com/profile/04348913969813157482noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post-12022609231789782502014-05-25T21:06:12.458-07:002014-05-25T21:06:12.458-07:00I am a little bothered by your designation of what...I am a little bothered by your designation of what constitute inappropriate exercise of free will, since you seem to say it seems to exist on a sliding scale. Granted, it makes some sense that it should be, since there are apparently some actions which are somehow more redeemable than others, i.e., Aule's creation of dwarves vs. Feanor's hoarding of the simarils. Yet to suggest that there is some (not easily defined) scale of appropriate use of free will muddies the waters between what is appropriate and inappropriate. Are there neutral exercises? If there is no clear line, it makes it difficult to really evaluate actions at all. Perhaps it has more to do with actions that follow those exercises of free will which make an action either appropriate or inappropriate. Some subsequent actions make it easier to incorporate the initial action back into the music, some less so. Of course, we continue to have problems when you consider that the subsequent actions are themselves acts of free will.<br /><br />DADAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13286020026192795817noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5746173806126403959.post-91800647314042349472014-05-03T10:49:06.007-07:002014-05-03T10:49:06.007-07:00Dear Will,
Thanks for your application of Augustin...Dear Will,<br />Thanks for your application of Augustine’s logic on the angels to the Ainur to underline the crucial role of the will in determining whether they act well or ‘inappropriately.’<br /><br />However, I am not quite satisfied with where we arrived on what is ‘inappropiate.’ As you found, all an Ainu’s actions have free agency and so can in a way “fulfill their own personal objectives or missions.” But which objectives are right and which wrong? Is it intention of the objectives, as we suggested in class? How does ‘temporal separation’ (as Aule jumps the gun with the dwarves) fit?<br /><br />Secondly, your hands-off view of Eru (allowing free choice to work and find the right way on its own) has some insight. But how doies this view mesh with the ‘ultimate control’ which you finally wondered about and which Eru seems to claim: “…Nor can any alter the music in my despite….” (Sil.,‘Ainulindale A,’ after great chord) Is there really an ultimate conflict between the exercise of free choice and Eru as source of all the Music?<br />~RobertUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16340002157728895236noreply@blogger.com