Re: "rise of china" and wst

On Thu, 1 Mar 2001, Boris Stremlin wrote:

> Sorry, but free will is anathema to a certain kind (namely, positivist)
> science, not to science per se.  And although actions are conditioned by
> (among other things) the sociocultural milieu, they do not, as Sherman
> asserts, have an ultimately traceable chain of causation.  Different
> factors of that milieu are emergent, and their emergence can be triggered
> by choices on our parts.  

        Yes, they do not have "an ultimately traceable chain of
causation," because we don't know enough about the multiple causes.  To
assume that effects occur without causes is beyond my ken.  I must be a
hoary positivist, or worse yet a materialist.  Should I be a philosophical
idealist instead?  Can you arrange a seance for my enlightenment?

        Warren