חדש באתר: NotebookLM עם כל תכני הרב מיכאל אברהם

Q&A: Free Will and Freedom of Choice?

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Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.

Free Will and Freedom of Choice?

Question

Hello Rabbi,
You don’t address Leibowitz’s statement that *in nature there is no will, and only in human beings does will exist…*
In nature there are no decisions, only conclusions…
A person decides or wants something without any rational basis…
A person does something because he wanted to, and behind that will there is no rationality at all…
I would be glad to hear your response.
Meir

Answer

Where exactly am I not addressing it? I’ve written books and articles about these very things, so if you would be so glad to hear my response, it is at your disposal. See my books The Science of Freedom and Man Is as the Grass, and the articles here on the site about freedom of the will. In general, every justification begins with first principles (axioms), and therefore there cannot be a justification for the first principles themselves. Does that make them arbitrary? Obviously not. On the contrary, they are true in a self-evident way and therefore do not require justification.
See the article I wrote explaining that Leibowitz did not understand himself on this point about the arbitrariness of the will. This too is another place where I supposedly “didn’t address” the point you’d so much like to hear my response to.

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