Good points. Determinists often say that their view supports some kind of criminal justice reforms, because criminals can't really be blamed. But it doesn't support any reforms, since we also can't be blamed for having the justice system we have. No one can help anything they do, so it's never true that they should have done otherwise.
Good points. Determinists often say that their view supports some kind of criminal justice reforms, because criminals can't really be blamed. But it doesn't support any reforms, since we also can't be blamed for having the justice system we have. No one can help anything they do, so it's never true that they should have done otherwise.
> How can we possibly do anything in response to determinism being true?
Deterministically, of course.
Your body (including your brain) actually is part of the universe, you know. It gets bumped around into various configurations, some of which result in some parts of your brain bumping other parts of your brain in various ways. Your brain might then bump your body into doing something that bumps into other parts of the universe (including other bodies and their brains).
Some of the configurations that a brain might get bumped into are called "believing in determinism". Any bumping your body does to the rest of the universe that has that configuration as part of its causal chain is literally a response to a belief in determinism.
It's really just a special case of general determinism. You might as well ask how we could possibly do anything in response to a rock falling on our toes. Determinism wouldn't stop us from cursing and taking Tylenol.
That seems to argue the opposite point. I'm not saying that determinism stops you from taking tylenol, I'm saying determinisms means there is no alternative. No way the rock would not have dropped on your toe, no way you would not have taken tylenol. So there is no choice, no action, no response to. The universe is just unfolding as it is.
Free will is not necessary for response. Choice is not necessary for response. Stimulus-response is observed in plants, and can be trained into simple animals. Arguments that animals have displayed free will are often pooh-poohed with the claim that what's been observed is just a response to a stimulus.
Taking Tylenol in reponse to an injury has been observed in humans. Denying that would be absurd. Saying that it's not response because there's "no choice" is likewise absurd. Look at how the word is used.
Good points. Determinists often say that their view supports some kind of criminal justice reforms, because criminals can't really be blamed. But it doesn't support any reforms, since we also can't be blamed for having the justice system we have. No one can help anything they do, so it's never true that they should have done otherwise.
This is what always gets me about determinism. It strikes me as completely bizarre to state "determinism is true, therefore we should..."
How can we possibly do anything in response to determinism being true?
> How can we possibly do anything in response to determinism being true?
Deterministically, of course.
Your body (including your brain) actually is part of the universe, you know. It gets bumped around into various configurations, some of which result in some parts of your brain bumping other parts of your brain in various ways. Your brain might then bump your body into doing something that bumps into other parts of the universe (including other bodies and their brains).
Some of the configurations that a brain might get bumped into are called "believing in determinism". Any bumping your body does to the rest of the universe that has that configuration as part of its causal chain is literally a response to a belief in determinism.
It's really just a special case of general determinism. You might as well ask how we could possibly do anything in response to a rock falling on our toes. Determinism wouldn't stop us from cursing and taking Tylenol.
That seems to argue the opposite point. I'm not saying that determinism stops you from taking tylenol, I'm saying determinisms means there is no alternative. No way the rock would not have dropped on your toe, no way you would not have taken tylenol. So there is no choice, no action, no response to. The universe is just unfolding as it is.
Free will is not necessary for response. Choice is not necessary for response. Stimulus-response is observed in plants, and can be trained into simple animals. Arguments that animals have displayed free will are often pooh-poohed with the claim that what's been observed is just a response to a stimulus.
Taking Tylenol in reponse to an injury has been observed in humans. Denying that would be absurd. Saying that it's not response because there's "no choice" is likewise absurd. Look at how the word is used.