Actually, the idea that the whole loaf "already" exists is skewed in both arguments, as it doesn't preempt the concept of time. The whole of existence, being an absolute immediate infinitesimal, can be argued to guarantee complete free will just the same as it can be argued to negate free will altogether. Just as the idea of a chain reaction relies on the concept of time, truly erasing time within that idea creates the infinite moment of a decision being made...a surfer on a wave negotiating his movements and positions to continue the ride, forever.
So what's the practical value of this philosophy? We are conceptually bound by the genuine paradox of all existence. Whether or not free will exists as well as it doesn't, we have the ability to decide to NOT destroy "life as we choose to know it", the natural environment around us, from which we have come into some sort of existence of thinking-therefore-being. Look around at anything and everything human...humanity is constantly and consistently destroying its own lifeblood, however not necessarily as a collective individual species, but through a self imposed hierarchy of individual group tiers, whatever their perspectives, allowing themselves to cognitively assist this process of self destruction and just as formally "program" other individuals below their place in the hierarchy to abide by obviously destructive means to an obviously destructive end...the power of belief, another topic altogether.
Re: “Got the Time?”
Actually, the idea that the whole loaf "already" exists is skewed in both arguments, as it doesn't preempt the concept of time. The whole of existence, being an absolute immediate infinitesimal, can be argued to guarantee complete free will just the same as it can be argued to negate free will altogether. Just as the idea of a chain reaction relies on the concept of time, truly erasing time within that idea creates the infinite moment of a decision being made...a surfer on a wave negotiating his movements and positions to continue the ride, forever.
So what's the practical value of this philosophy? We are conceptually bound by the genuine paradox of all existence. Whether or not free will exists as well as it doesn't, we have the ability to decide to NOT destroy "life as we choose to know it", the natural environment around us, from which we have come into some sort of existence of thinking-therefore-being. Look around at anything and everything human...humanity is constantly and consistently destroying its own lifeblood, however not necessarily as a collective individual species, but through a self imposed hierarchy of individual group tiers, whatever their perspectives, allowing themselves to cognitively assist this process of self destruction and just as formally "program" other individuals below their place in the hierarchy to abide by obviously destructive means to an obviously destructive end...the power of belief, another topic altogether.