Emails of the Week - Aug 31 2010 - Freedomain Radio

Why get married, beliefs versus evidence, and free will versus determinism...

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Why get married
• beliefs versus evidence
• free
• will
• determinism
• philosophy

[AdamOuissellat]

@shlockofgod Ahh okay, that makes sense. Thanks.

[shlockofgod]

@AdamOuissellat "This is because shouting at them will have some (negligible) effect on the rocks"

He was talking about the content of what was being shouted (Go left, Go right). not the actual shouting.

"If the T.V can hear you then isn't shouting at it reasonable?"

That takes YOU out of the causal chain. You are also a TV. IF everything you do is completely determined then there is no reasonable or unreasonable action. There is only what is determined.

[AdamOuissellat]

I think you may have missed something in your critique of determinism. Your analogy to rocks rolling down the hill isn't fair. This is because shouting at them will have some (negligible) effect on the rocks. If you see particles of dust falling to the ground then shouting at them (if it is loud enough) will cause them to have a different path towards the ground than if you had not shouted. And with humans, shouting is not negligible. If the T.V can hear you then isn't shouting at it reasonable?

[Gjeremy]

@PostITnoteGUY

Thank you for the comment,

Should Free Will be described more off the limbic system then of the neocortex.

I believe so, wink, wink. ;)

[Hanahleia]

If a determinist is saying that you "should" believe in anything, then perhaps these determinists don't fully understand the implications of determinism, which is something I don't think people really discuss. I've heard Ramesh Balsekar go over implications of determinism, such as the pursuit of happiness in trying to possess the most gratification in pleasure is a pointless pursuit, since the amount of pleasure you'll receive in your life has already been predetermined in the determinst's p.o.v

[rgrannell1]

@bunsh1ch1 that counts as an input



[MRTEED]

I really have a beef with your television input argument for free will. Just because yelling at your tv doesn't work doesn't mean the tv doesn't run on an cause/effect basis. Thats like trying to wake someone up with a dog whistle. A frequency is being made, but the person does not hear or respond to that stimulus.

[TomMichaels101]

You can't get the marks unless you repeat the dogma.

What an appropriate homonym.

You can't get the Marx unless you repeat the dogma.

[TomMichaels101]

Stefan: What audio compressor are you using on your videos here? It gives such a distinct sound to your work (and is like a connective tissue of sorts among your assorted clips).

[BroBroDude]

@bunsh1ch1 "To make this statement a person would have to know what consciousness is."

they'd need to have a model of it, yes. Free will exists because we don't have perfect information? k if you say so but then so does everything else unfalsifiable. live your life accordingly and report back with results.

"Couldn't a person's mental state effect their choice all inputs being the same?"

No doubt about that. All mental states are effects, however, and one never controls [all] the causes. QED