That is, they think all of their decisions were preordained, and then use this to claim that they can’t be held responsible for anything they do.

  • enkers
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    1 year ago

    Any claim can be inverted, so lacking evidence in either direction, this applies to the inverse as well.

    I personally prefer more psychologically rooted arguments that lean towards at least compatibilism. If a belief in free will, regardless of the actual fact, is sufficient to affect one’s actions, is that not evidence against hard determinism?

    • xigoi
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      51 year ago

      Dismissing a claim is not equivalent to asserting the negated claim.

      • enkers
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        1 year ago

        Right, but lacking any physical evidence in either direction, is it not reasonable to then turn to purely rational explanations if we want to arrive at some sort of belief?

          • enkers
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            11 year ago

            You can have a rational basis for a belief without empirical evidence (Russell’s teapot, for example). The reason you’d want to do that is to simplify the model of reality you’re working with in order to reduce the number of contingencies you need to account for.

    • conciselyverbose
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      41 year ago

      Nah. It just extends down. Your belief, and any changes over time, are also predetermined as some sum of your inputs.

      • enkers
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        1 year ago

        Sure, but the compatibilist view is, in my understanding, that determinism is true, but we still have free will. The mind is so complex its deterministic function can’t be fully predicted, so the outcome of particular inputs over any meaningful duration cannot be computed. Thus actual free will and the illusion of free are essentially functionally identical.