Philosophy: Determinism and Futility, Simon Blackburn: Being Good

A reading from Being Good by Simon Blackburn published by Oxford University Press, 2001.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• simon blackburn
• being good
• blackburn
• determinism
• determinism and futility
• futility
• philosophy
• ethics
• ethical theory
• intentionality

[mirabileamavi]

Great selection, I only read one paper by him, something on supervenience. plasticity? haha

[westfinearts]

@mirabileamavi 'plasticity'...yes yes 'particularly' also a killer...

[ienjoymodels]

i enjoy this chapter of the book.

[PAUL7575000]

I believe.. the brain has risen above the predetetermined DNA coded programmes that determine common perceptions of beauty ...we all look for symmetry and proportion...etc. we are able to supress feelings..with free will.. Envy.. it is preprogrammed ..it is not futile to reason against envy..if we argue we are nothing more than animated machines, mass murder would have no moral importance..any more than, destroying a million programmed toy robots.= to be or not to be ??

[AutodidacticPhd]

I find that most arguments on determinism follow the same route... namely, that an ordered set of instructions must always come to one end or another. Very rarely does anyone pay much mind to the possibility that instructions, ordered or not, which are in any way capable of responding to variable conditions, will become part of any dynamic system in which they are embedded. It quickly becomes difficult, maybe even impossible, to plot the course of a "determined" system once interactions arise.

[wizkid2000]

Determinism has nothing to do with genetics.

[Naturalist2009]

I don´t know, if Blackburn understands, what determinism means. Nobody say, that determinism means, that only our genes lead us.