jakelafort

Davis wrote:
I remember reading Sam Harris’s atrocious book on free will. In the first half he dismisses free will. In the second half he talks about how we “should” look at the world in a different way. And then advice about how to best live your life. He still stands by it. One half of his book talks about how we have no choice but to do what…

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@ Davis

Cop out? Me? You still haven’t told me if my cat has free will. She obviously has the ability to conceive and carry out an act. Is she responsible for it? Accountable? At what level of evolutionary development does free will begin to creep in?

You’re stuck in medieval religion-based philosophy.

Free will is nonsense. Therefore, nothing…[Read more]

I remember reading Sam Harris’s atrocious book on free will. In the first half he dismisses free will. In the second half he talks about how we “should” look at the world in a different way. And then advice about how to best live your life. He still stands by it. One half of his book talks about how we have no choice but to do what we do, and then…[Read more]

PopeBeanie wrote:
@unseen What difference does it make, whether or not Free Will actually exists? Recently I’m thinking that all that matters in terms of how we think and behave is whether or not we believe in it. (And yes, I’m good with saying that what we believe in is also determined… just as are the external, environmental effects on our i…

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There is a common concern that without free will there’s no accountability. Nonsense. We will go on holding people to account because we have to, in the sense that this is how we respond to acts that displease or enrage us. We respond in this way because we have to. Literally. We have no real choice but respond that way.

That’s such a cop out. B…[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:
Volition and causality are not opposed to each other. When we say that someone chose to do something, we are saying that they are casual agents that acted to produce an effect.

Try to imagine what “volition” would even mean in a universe where causality was hit and miss. And what would an uncaused volitional act even be?…[Read more]

@Unseen What difference does it make, whether or not Free Will actually exists? Recently I’m thinking that all that matters in terms of how we think and behave is whether or not we believe in it. (And yes, I’m good with saying that what we believe in is also determined… just as are the external, environmental effects on our internal state. While…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
[…] We will go on holding people to account because we have to, in the sense that this is how we respond to acts that displease or enrage us. We respond in this way because we have to. Literally. We have no real choice but respond that way.

Increasingly often, I’m wondering how important it is to answer this question with…[Read more]

There is a common concern that without free will there’s no accountability. Nonsense. We will go on holding people to account because we have to, in the sense that this is how we respond to acts that displease or enrage us. We respond in this way because we have to. Literally. We have no real choice but respond that way.

jakelafort wrote:
Notice how the language suggests dualism? We can’t really conceive of anything but our own agency. Where are we? WHERE, GODDAMNIT TO FUCKING HELL!

You can’t really have free will, methinks, without implying a duality between a brain which usually controls our physical ctions and a soul, spirit, disembodied consciousness which c…[Read more]

Davis wrote:
If you argue we should dispense with the childish illusion that we have free will, so you should with the illusion of culpability, responsibility, fairness etc. If you cannot, you should re-evaluate one or the other.

Well, whatever you do, you are somehow caused to do it. Human decisions are not random. There is a physical system…[Read more]

Yeah, it seems like we have “agency”; but is it real? Probably not, but the best answer is that we simply don’t know yet.

Agency is as real and meaningful as: decision, responsibility, culpability, power structures, invention, reward, retribution, entitlement, ownership, merit etc. Dismiss one…you should dismiss them all. If one is meani…[Read more]

@ Enco

I know little about the particular insular Jewish community in question, but I do know that their beliefs, like those of Muslims, can vary widely from one temple’s rabbi’s teachings to the next. It’s not like Christian churches which have counsels, synods, etc., dictating doctrine to widely-dispersed communities.

Thus, neither you nor I…[Read more]

Free will is similar to “the God of the gaps.” Whereas the theist believes that the universe’s mysteries are explainable by positing their magical mystery being, the believer in free will explains by creating a gap in causality such that cause and effect are suspended and free will takes over.

If Joe robs a bank, and you don’t believe in free…[Read more]

Fan videos with English lyrics/Spanish translation for the two new TW songs that still don’t have any HQ live or “official” pro-made videos yet. First, “HYCAD” (as it’s being called, meaning Hell You Call A Dream):

And then, the one called Sick:

I was living in London in 1987 and the clubs were full of Goths. This song was constantly being played.

@ Robert

Thank you. You’re right about their music, of course. It’s fairly standard heavy metal. Their look, however, is totally Hot Topic goth, aimed at kids who feel they are outsiders.

On the so-called “family band” level, The Warning has competition. Five members of the same family with something like a 10-year age range. It’s hard to compare them with The Warning because from the opening it’s clear they have undertaken a different project. They are totally goth, which celebrates death and decadence. The Warning’s members are…[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:
These jerks wouldn’t be digging tunnels and jeopardizing the property, safety, and lives of people above ground if it wasn’t for religion.

You’re ignoring the child abuse angle.