On Wed, Jun 6, 2012 at 6:57 PM, meekerdb <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 6/6/2012 9:30 AM, R AM wrote: > > On Wed, Jun 6, 2012 at 6:18 PM, Brian Tenneson <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I think people make choices from among available options many times every >> day and that is why the concept in question exists. > > > I agree that people make choices. I dont't think it is free will. > > You said that people would believe that it would unfair to punish anyone > if there were no "free will". I agree that people believe that > > > If there were no "free will" of what kind? contra-causal? compatibilist? > social/legal? > Contral-causal, I guess. What I'm defending is that the belief in free-will is, in part, a social construct, useful from the social/legal point of view, as you say. We are educated to believe it. And even if it's not fair (another social term) it may be a useful thing > for society to do. > I'm pretty convinced it is not fair. "Doing the right thing" is just a skill, like any other (running fast, jumping, intelligence, ...), and different people posess it to different degrees. Yet, from a social point of view, we consider everybody to have "the same amount of free will", excet in extreme cases (madness, drunkenness, etc). It's definitely not fair, but on the other hand, it is difficult to see what else we could do. It's useful for society to consider it that way. > Brent > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
