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Full Idea
We think our actions express our decisions, but in nearly all of our life, willing decides nothing. We cannot wake up or fall asleep, remember or forget our dreams, summon or banish our thoughts, by deciding to do so.
Gist of Idea
The will hardly ever does anything; most of our life just happens to us
Source
John Gray (Straw Dogs [2002], 2.12)
Book Ref
Gray,John: 'Straw Dogs' [Granta 2002], p.69
A Reaction
Gray's point does not rule out occasional total control over mental life, but his point is important. The traditional picture is of a life controlled, so the will is seen as at the centre of a person, but it just isn't the case.
| 23055 | Christians introduced the idea that a religion needs a creed [Gray] |
| 23056 | Judaism only became monotheistic around 550 BCE [Gray] |
| 23057 | Gnosticism has a supreme creator God, giving way to a possibly hostile Demiurge [Gray] |
| 23058 | Buddhism has no divinity or souls, and the aim is to lose the illusion of a self [Gray] |
| 23061 | Free atheism should start by questioning its faith in humanity [Gray] |
| 9271 | Human knowledge may not produce well-being; the examined life may not be worth living [Gray] |
| 9275 | Knowledge does not need minds or nervous systems; it is found in all living things [Gray] |
| 9276 | The will hardly ever does anything; most of our life just happens to us [Gray] |
| 9272 | Without Christianity we lose the idea that human history has a meaning [Gray] |
| 9278 | Nowadays we identify the free life with the good life [Gray] |
| 9279 | What was our original sin, and how could Christ's suffering redeem it? [Gray] |
| 9280 | Over forty percent of the Earth's living tissue is human [Gray] |