Dennett & Dawkins on Freedom & Determinism

'Free will' is the conventional name of a topic that is best discussed without reference to the will. Its central questions are 'What is it to act (or choose) freely?', and 'What is it to be morally responsible for one's actions (or choices)?' These two questions are closely connected, for freedom of action is necessary for moral responsibility, even if it is not sufficient.

In this video, the icons of determinism are expressing the the idea that determinism carried to its extremes, becomes nihilistic, fatalistic and absurd. So many pseudo-intellectuals are determined to be extreme absurdest determinist. The idea is ridiculous and it is gaining far too much currency. This view of determinism is a plague on the viability and continued resilience of life on Earth.

Dawkins and Dennetts are too smart. The misguided don't like that truth. (Maybe that accounts for the low rating on this video. Who knows.)

Dennett and Dawkins on Freedom in a deterministic world

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Daniel
• Dennett
• Richard
• Dawkins
• inmendham
• determinism
• free
• will
• fatalism

[pawnstar3]

@HedgehogRebellion Yeah his video was a bit all over the place but it was basically stating something similar to what I was saying in terms of compatibilism. My suggestion to you would be to look up compatibilism on the web (even wikipedia has a good page on it) and see if you can agree with the basic aspects of it. To me, compatiblism is the most sensible answer to the question of free will and determinism since it has ways of incorporating both sensibly.

[HedgehogRebellion]

@pawnstar3 I got halfway thru, and i just asked him if he would hit my videoup and ask if he would check it out, he was hitting up so many points in such rapid succesion that i could not identify a consistent theme relative to my argument.

[pawnstar3]

@HedgehogRebellion Again, I think that free will and determinism actually co-exist. I think the problem lies in how we define these things essentially. I actually saw a decent video today on here which talks a bit about this discussion. If you're interested, search "energy matter and information" by a user called professoranton - let me know what you think if you do watch it - it has some decent points especially towards the end.

[HedgehogRebellion]

@pawnstar3

The kicker! What is our personality if not an sum totaling of our values? Here's where we get back into the whole PersonalityBrainDNALuck chain of reasoning.

We can change. Right now you are reading my words and your brain is processing the information which may cause you to change your mind. But whether it changes or not is determined by what you already believe, which is the result of how your life experinces up till this very second have acted on the brain you were born with!

[HedgehogRebellion]

@pawnstar3 OK...we agonize over a decision because two options may both be attractive and we have have to:

1: Scrutinize the differences that make each option different by comparing them on a point-by-point basis

2: Imagine what the outcome will be of each option...because one option may be preferable in one context and viceversa

3: Access our own stored preferences to do comparissons with the options to see if the match our own values

See above

[pawnstar3]

@HedgehogRebellion I did watch the video. There are some points I definitely agree with but I still disagree with the notion that we don't have free will. Again, we are our brains. It seems like you're explaining the functions of the brain but to me that can go hand in hand with free will - instead of negating it. Why do people agonize over certain decisions or have regrets? Why try to convince me that free will doesn't exist if I can't choose to change my mind about it?

[HedgehogRebellion]

@pawnstar3 At this point Im going to ask you to swing by my channel and check out my video. The reason I put it up was so that I could try and deliever the bulk of my argument in one clean stroke. If you do...great...if you dont...OK...I hope you do.

[pawnstar3]

@HedgehogRebellion The reason I brought up God is that God is said to have given people free will - that's what the whole Adam and Eve parable alludes to in fact.

[pawnstar3]

@HedgehogRebellion part 2....then the person since they are their brain has the ability to make choices. See I agree with you that part of what's effecting the choice is experience, brain chemistry, etc. But since we're our brains anyway, that is essentially us making that choice. There is no distinction between a person and their brain. The danger of what you're saying is that moral responsilbity can be evaded.

[pawnstar3]

@HedgehogRebellion Well I think consciousness and intelligence is what gives people the ability to make choices of their own will. I think in many ways we actually agree, but it's more on the point of how we classify the brain as its own entity. Let me try this very simple equation. A is the brain and B is the person. If we agree that a person is essentially their brain, then we can safely say that A= B. If we say that the brain has the ability to make choices, ....