tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4724592643224262209.post8941100843250930716..comments2023-05-08T02:52:16.953-07:00Comments on Cognition and Evolution: Philosophical Fisticuffs: Dennett vs Harris on Free WillMichael Catonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01017910055699348111noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4724592643224262209.post-80630019496559285642014-04-26T13:54:31.082-07:002014-04-26T13:54:31.082-07:00Victor, I am open to being changing my mind that f...Victor, I am open to being changing my mind that free will doesn't exist. But I'm curious as to why you've concluded that making personal attacks on people who disagree with you will accomplish this. Or do you just have trouble controlling yourself when something is important to you?<br /><br />Clearly the truth doesn't depend on our values; you must have been reading a different blog if that's the impression you got. But I'm certain that you, in your search for truth as a scientist, do in fact allow your values to inform your decisions; otherwise you wouldn't be able to function with other human beings. I'm guessing that you're very young and you have trouble recognizing the motivations for your actions.Michael Catonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01017910055699348111noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4724592643224262209.post-90394960628266312932014-03-14T11:07:11.103-07:002014-03-14T11:07:11.103-07:00I'll bite all three of those bullets.
1) Rem...I'll bite all three of those bullets. <br /><br />1) Removing any sense of free will does not destroy morality; it refines it into pure consequentialism. It's still logical to reward and punish, but the concept of retribution as such must fall away. This change would be very much for the better, anyway.<br /><br />2 & 3) Theoretical physicists suspect that the passage of time is an illusion, and that the universe would appear to be static when viewed from outside. Additionally, I don't see how compatibilist models of free will address these issues.Natenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4724592643224262209.post-45343560740244757642014-03-09T11:48:27.094-07:002014-03-09T11:48:27.094-07:00Free will is going to be disproved, as was elan vi...Free will is going to be disproved, as was elan vital. I just hope you'll be around when this happens to read your funny non-sequitur rationalization. A good example from your post: you have absolutely no idea of what science is and you conflate with a mystical form of humanism, not unlike humanistic Christianity or Marxism.<br />Science is not about values, it's about facts. As a scientist I care zero point zero percent if proving free-will doesn't exist will create x or y or z. Proving the existence of pathogens and their role in disease helped saving billions of lives, and also killing thousands. If you had lived when this research was happening, you would have said that this understanding helps us build bio-weapons so we should put a lid on and stop it. <br />As many people in the philosophy of science have said, you can't put ideas back once you take them out, i.e. you start thinking about them and researching. The same is valid for free-will research, even if this Copernican point of view doesn't sit well with most of humanity's anthropocentric intuitions.Victorhttp://www.none.nonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4724592643224262209.post-68390124181585313302014-03-09T04:58:18.493-07:002014-03-09T04:58:18.493-07:00Free will is going to be disproved, as was elan vi...Free will is going to be disproved, as was elan vital. I just hope you'll be around when this happens to read your funny non-sequitur rationalization. A good example from your post: you have absolutely no idea of what science is and you conflate with a mystical form of humanism, not unlike humanistic Christianity or Marxism.<br />Science is not about values, it's about facts. As a scientist I care zero point zero percent if proving free-will doesn't exist will create x or y or z. Proving the existence of pathogens and their role in disease helped saving billions of lives, and also killing thousands. If you had lived when this research was happening, you would have said that this understanding helps us build bio-weapons so we should put a lid on and stop it. <br />As many people in the philosophy of science have said, you can't put ideas back once you take them out, i.e. you start thinking about them and researching. The same is valid for free-will research, even if this Copernican point of view doesn't sit well with most of humanity's anthropocentric intuitions.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4724592643224262209.post-79826686410777713722014-03-06T12:00:53.856-08:002014-03-06T12:00:53.856-08:000. To say that a question must make a practical di...0. To say that a question must make a practical difference to be meaningful is too stringent, since it rules out much of science. The truth or otherwise of many worlds, the existence or not of dark matter are profound questions, which nonetheless make no obvious difference to human affairs.<br /><br />1. Not necessarily, because of compatibilism <br /><br />2. Not free will does not imply strict causal determinism. SCD does not imply the Block Universe Theory.<br /><br />3. Flow of time is problematised by Block Uniterse, not SCD, nor by NFW. <br /><br />4. Yep.<br /><br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4724592643224262209.post-5273073957766872362014-03-06T11:58:40.872-08:002014-03-06T11:58:40.872-08:000. To say that a question must make a practical di...0. To say that a question must make a practical difference to be meaningful is too stringent, since it rules out much of science. The truth or otherwise of many worlds, the existence or not of dark matter are profound questions, which nonetheless make no obvious difference to human affairs.<br /><br />1. Not necessarily, because of compatibilism <br /><br />2. Not free will does not imply strict causal determinism. SCD does not imply the Block Universe Theory.<br /><br />3. Flow of time is problematised by Block Uniterse, not SCD, nor by NFW. <br /><br />4. Yep.<br /><br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4724592643224262209.post-28901177956331910062014-02-14T10:33:09.169-08:002014-02-14T10:33:09.169-08:00I am not sure there is much to be gained in 't...I am not sure there is much to be gained in 'the big question' discussions of free will. Free will and autonomy almost certainly do not exist is the common western understandings of the term. At this point the most useful discussion is simply working at definitions of the term. Some cognitive scientists are working on things like this. Do you recommend any particular blogs? RLLhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13850927095383579725noreply@blogger.com