Posted on 04/02/2024 5:31:02 AM PDT by Lazamataz
Sounds like he’s an apologist for evil... a lowlife progressive with fancy words and title.
Yawn.
then, he had no choice but to say that, even if it is not true
If people have no control over their behavior, why do Dems propagandize so much? Why do companies advertise? Why do we pass laws? Is it just a coincidence that if you tax something, you get less of it? The idea that we never have any control over our behavior is ridiculous and just an excuse for bad behavior.
“This means accepting that a man who shoots into a crowd has no more control over his fate than the victims who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It means treating drunk drivers who barrel into pedestrians just like drivers who suffer a sudden heart attack and veer out of their lane.”
If that nonsense is accepted, then there are no crimes and society would quickly degenerate into complete chaos.
We all have free will in different degrees, but all mentally competent people have free will regarding their personal conduct.
The re$ult of mo$t $tudie$ ... more $tudie$ needed.
It’s an ancient argument. The fascinating thing is that philosophical determinism is so durable despite being ultimately incoherent. If we deny choice, we deny our own cognition. If we deny our own cognition, well ... within two or three more steps down the breadcrumb trail, we end up denying mind, consciousness, meaning, purpose, the validity of aesthetic and moral judgments, any coherent code of ethics, and the status of reason itself.
Self-proclaimed determinists do not in fact behave as if they actually believed what they are saying. They claim to be making a general statement as a theoretical proposition, but in actuality they invoke the principle on an ad hoc, situational basis. It is a wild card that they pull from the bottom of the deck to sandbag an opponent in a debate about whatever; it may be invoked simply as a way of changing the subject, especially on moral questions, when the other side appears to be carrying the day.
As with all such arguments, the underlying cheat is that the people making such arguments think they can get away with asymmetrical warfare. They assume that they can use the wild card but no one else can. At some point, they will force others into enough of a corner that the gloves will come off and turnabout becomes fair play.
The professor in this story prattles nonsense while operating in a profession and setting in which everyone else plays be the rules and no one tests the limits. He himself appears to live by rational rules in his real life and confines the insanity to books and lectures. That would end the moment a student walked up and punched him in the nose, or chronically disrupted his classroom, or torched his house, and claimed immunity from punishment on the determinist principle. A theory that collapses at the first real test is not much of a theory.
You’ve just explained the reason for this fool’s paper. Thanks.
Pfizer to the rescue in 3..2..1..
Gotta justice all the feral rioting somehow...
Excellent point.
My will wasn’t free, it cost me big bucks! But, at least the in-laws won’t get any.
P.S. I should have added that from time to time we do indeed encounter people who appear to have no control over their actions. We regard them as insane. The very idea of sanity assumes a mind and consciousness that can structure thought and behavior.
We also recognize that our choices can be variously conditioned. Yes, it makes a difference if we are hungry, exhausted, fearful, or in imminent danger. It makes a difference if we have time to think or are overtaken by a cascading chaos of unexpected events.
But even in extreme cases, we retain a capacity for choice — and therefore cannot escape responsibility for our choices. Even when the secret policeman points a gun to our heads, or when the torturer is inflicting agonies, we do not have to betray the hiding place of the Jew, or the priest, or the political dissident, or even JK Rowling when they come after her for saying that “woman” has a real, objective meaning.
We recognize that some people break under threats and torture. We will often make allowances for people who break under extreme duress. But we still recognize that a choice is being made, because not everyone breaks. Not everyone is a hero, but most of us recognize that heroes exist. Determinists deny this — usually, I think, because they are concerned mainly with rationalizing their own bad, perhaps cowardly, usually selfish choices.
Actions have consequences.
Decisions lead to actions.
This guy does NOT have science on his side.
But he is probably a hell of a talker. Garrulous might be the word.
Peeps like him usually have lived a very insulated and even pampered life.
Well, Einstein agreed with this. He famously said that he knew a murderer had no choice in killing, but still preferred not to have dinner with the killer.
According to the author, we should not punish wrongdoers, and we should not reward hard workers. None of it was their “choice”.
So we should let society disintegrate, and then absolve ourselves of responsibility.
But how is it we can make that choice?
It’s very dangerous to disagree with Einstein, but I do. Certainly I disagree with this author.
He’s right that complex factors influence behavior. He’s wrong if he believes individuals and societies cannot really make choices.
I think.
But despite that fact he is very interesting. Anyone with some free time should check him out...despite what he might believe.
May I suggest you use your night stick,officer?
Ha!
Does that apply to his research? Maybe the Devil guided it.
He may well be very interesting, but I have found that the most dangerous lies are those that are mixed in with truths.
On that basis, I won't be pursuing his offerings.
he knows that we do have free will, because if we didn’t, we wouldn’t be able to stop doing that.
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Very astute observation. You win the interweb for the day.
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