This has got me to think of what I hope to be one of the many possible answers which is how etiology and teleology are often presented as competing frameworks but in practice they are deeply interdependent. At different stages of life, our understanding of the past provides the necessary context to exercise meaningful choice, while teleology allows us to act with purpose once that context is understood. And perhaps the rigor of self determination depends on knowing when to reflect backward and when to move forward. True agency, therefore, is the art of navigating between these perspectives, calibrated to time, circumstance, and the evolution of the self. Maybe it's not are we prisoners of the past or architects of tomorrow , but more of when should we be the prisoners of our past and architects of tomorrow?
I think this is really deep perspective. My view (opinion of one person and not validated by data) is binary on on the topic in that each one of us has a more dominant default philosophical view.
The way I read your examples is potentially moving from one to the other being more dominant is a natural evolution of how we evolve. The more interesting thought for me is, what are experiences or knowledge gain that allows us to evolve our thinking (regardless of direction).
This has got me to think of what I hope to be one of the many possible answers which is how etiology and teleology are often presented as competing frameworks but in practice they are deeply interdependent. At different stages of life, our understanding of the past provides the necessary context to exercise meaningful choice, while teleology allows us to act with purpose once that context is understood. And perhaps the rigor of self determination depends on knowing when to reflect backward and when to move forward. True agency, therefore, is the art of navigating between these perspectives, calibrated to time, circumstance, and the evolution of the self. Maybe it's not are we prisoners of the past or architects of tomorrow , but more of when should we be the prisoners of our past and architects of tomorrow?
I think this is really deep perspective. My view (opinion of one person and not validated by data) is binary on on the topic in that each one of us has a more dominant default philosophical view.
The way I read your examples is potentially moving from one to the other being more dominant is a natural evolution of how we evolve. The more interesting thought for me is, what are experiences or knowledge gain that allows us to evolve our thinking (regardless of direction).