https://www.facebook.com/SkepticalLibertarian/posts/613455615338918

Typhoid mary and free will

typhoid Mary, notorious spreader of disease, didn't believe she was contagious, threat to others, insisted on continuing to work food service.

Free will at Ilion: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=479830240587990195&postID=4085634532816680912

Ilion, there is no question that it is nearly impossible to not feel that you have free will. So, in our everyday lives, no one is a full-fledged determinist. I have never stated anything contrary to that. But feeling that one has free will is not the same thing as actually having it (in something more than the ordinary meaning of making choices and having the mental capacity to understand the consequences of those "choices"). 

What we can do on an intellectual level is reason from the law of causality that applies to everything else and then apply that law to ourselves. 

We can "deduce" determinism, but can we notice it through our experiences? Only in a very limited way, if at all. But that's not a very strong argument for free will. 

 planks length said...

In a determinist universe, there ought to be no prisons... in fact, no law. After all, no one would be responsible for his actions. How could we possibly call anyone guilty of a wrongdoing, if there is only "doing"?

 Nick J said...

Strange reasoning, planks length. Lack of libertarian free will doesn't mean that person (rapist, murderer, armed robber) didn't commit the act. They can still be held as dangerous to society, just as those who commit terrible things but are found "not guilty by reason of insanity" are locked up if they remain insane and their insanity makes them a threat to others.

Also as to whether criminals have a defense in their lack of free will, I've tried to argue in the past that this suggests that each person is a passive observer of his own actions which I don't think is the case, even without free will. I think we're still responsible for our actions, our actions defining in a sense who we are. But these are just ideas of mine.


 http://www.ted.com/conversations/1107/there_is_no_such_thing_as_free.html

Copyright Nazis Strike Again!

Original SE post updated: http://www.skepticaleye.com/2010/05/music-monday-blackout.html

test

hello

hi

how are you?

Zimmerman!

Zim, how you have endured the attack of the hive!

Zim, we who know Truth vs. lies

know you are NOT GUILTY!

Zim, they tried to turn your brown skin white!

But justice and truth saw the light!

The black racists have been exposed!

They are all liars, as everyone knows!

You had no choice but to save your life!

And protect your head as the young thug

used it to bang the ground beanth you

Thank God you had a gun!

No, it wasn't fun!

But now the lying "liberal" scum call you a bum!

But to the rest of us,

Yes, you are a HERO!!!!

May you run...


FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finish the Story: What Happened!

Coming soon to http://www.skepticaleye.com/

Finish the Story: Transformations

"Really, Edward, it's just too much."

Edward was tired of this and this stupid fat old "teacher", always complaining about his homework.

"What's wrong wit it," he snarled.

Mr. Bloominbags looked up and pulled his reading glasses down, giving Edward "the stare" that he always used to intimate students (only he, Edward the Great, the world's most spectacular magician, wizard, in fact, could not be intimidated by the likes of old Bloominbags).

"You were supposed, Edward, to write an essay on your trip to the zoo and some of the animals you encountered there, but instead you've given me yet another one of your ridiculous made up stories about how you turned into something else, this time a tiger and a gorilla. You call it, I think, yes, a 'tigrilla'. I'm sadly going to be forced to give you a failing grade on this one."

Edward started to open his mouth, but he stayed silent. He would get his revenge, why, it was only a matter of time until...

Edward stared in disbeilef. "Mr. Bloom...Bloominbags, what are you doing, what's happening to you!"