Unseen

_Robert_ wrote:
Does anyone have an argument against an infinite number of possible futures, each one dependent on the present state?

Not sure what you’re getting at, so I’ll just say that the future will probably be just like the past that got us here today: cause and effect, cause and effect, with some of those causes happening randomly…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:
I can see the logic in determinism – that we are now a complete product of the past.  However.  What about this?  It has been determined that we have a level of free choice given the many constraints on our existence.

The determinism I talk about only refers to the immediately proximate causes, the sufficient causes, igno…[Read more]

Dennett redefines free will so that it no longer involves a truly free choice among alternatives and can thus be made compatible with the truths of science. So, he accepts determinism, but limits its scope so that it stops at the door of morality.

He makes the reality of free will depend on our need for morality rather than the other way around.…[Read more]

Just a thought: Dennett rescues the notion of free will by diminishing it. I think that most people who value free will are going to find Dennett’s free will less than fully satisfying.

@ Reg

Prof. Dennett confuses determinists with predeterminists. He argues, in so many words, “If determinism is true, then the future is entirely laid out ahead of time until the end of time.” That’s a pastiche of several things he says in the video you gave us, as well as in other videos.

I’m sure there are determinists who hold that view, but…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:

Unseen wrote:
For the ones involving deliberation even the deliberation just happens in a sense. If I say “Choices just happen and I don’t know how the brain does it,” that doesn’t really scream “free will” to me.

Well, just because we can’t explain something, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

Yes, whether or not we have free…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:
As far as most people go, they all have the same level of free will, whether or not that free will is illusory.  They can choose to keep the law, or choose to break it.  That’s enough free will to convict a typical person who has broken the law.

Illusory free will is the absence of free will, isn’t it?

That someone can cho…[Read more]

@ Reg

That was a very interesting discussion for someone like me who’s interested in philosophical issues and who thinks that, contrary to those who argue “Philosophy is dead,” philosophy is important and as society and technology advance, is becoming even more so.

My last paragraph in the original post, which reads, And here’s a really d…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
Ya know the scapegoating of Jews, the historical distortions and lies, the attribution of western sins projected onto Jews is antisemitism. The denial of their right to a state is antisemitism. The insane hyperfocus and double/higher standards is antisemitsm. But equally or more important the hyperfocus by the far left on Israel…

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The Warning’s Dany and Pau are in the top 10  Best Mexican Female Singers list, and Dany is #1!!!

@ Jake

As I explained, I don’t hate Jews, I would have married a Jew, I have no qualms at using Jewish doctors or shopping at businesses owned by Jewish people. I don’t view them as money-grubbers or bankers or as running the world.

I don’t check any bigot boxes.

While I think the creation of Israel cascaded into a lot of the problems…[Read more]

I’ve been called an antisemite both directly and by implication by a member. Question for the mods: Is that within the guidelines? To wit…

6. Defamation. You may say anything you like, no matter how offensive or unflattering, provided you demonstrate the charge is reasonably true. A more serious charge requires more and better support. If you a…[Read more]

@ jake

FYI, I’m not for taking active steps to end the existence of Israel. It seems far too late for that. However, using American tax dollars to subsidize everything they want to do and turning a blind I toward the country’s incremental drift toward apartheid and Palestinian ethnic cleansing—done in the interest of keeping Israel a Jewish r…[Read more]

America’s commitment to Israel has grown due to (a) our original commitment to the mistake of its creation and our inability to admit the magnitude of the mistake, causing us to double- and triple-down and (b) the grip the Israeli and the allied evangelical Christian political lobbies have on Washington politicians on both sides of the aisle.

jakelafort wrote:
Oh i understand. Your interest is strictly academic and yet it is limited to Israel. Just keep searching left wing anti-Israel Jewish propaganda. You will find more bullshit to post. There is a shit load of lies to populate the religion of Jew hatred. Those lies are so transparent. Accuse Jews of being like us westerners in…

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@ PopeBeanie

Yes, they are quite good.

Once again for people who don’t seem to want to understand, my argument isn’t about evil nasty Jewry which needs to be exterminated, it’s about how the creation of Israel has left the world with a litany of problems.

I don’t hate Jews. My argument, I repeat, would be the same and the effects would be much the same if Israel were created as a …[Read more]

@ Enco

You continue to run away from the truth. The evidence I presented is real and logical, not speculative. If the creation of Israel has resulted in some countervailing benefits to the world, making the creation of Israel overall a benefit, I’m not preventing you from listing them, am I? List ’em:

1. …