On Jun 6, 1:48 pm, John Clark <johnkcl...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Wed, Jun 6, 2012 Craig Weinberg <whatsons...@gmail.com> wrote:
There is no meaningful difference between will and free will. Adding 'free' only emphasizes that the intention is your own and not compelled by circumstances beyond your control. All will implies the capacity to intentionally control, which is not logically consistent with 100% determinism. If a rolling stone needs no experience of will to decide which way it will roll, then a person needs no such experience to function mechanically. > > > > > > Punishment only works if something 1. cares whether or not it's > > experience is unpleasant > > Yes. > > > 2. has causally efficacious motive to alter their behavior, > > ^^^^^^^^ > No, although if the criminal's actions are not causal, if they are random, > then the range of potential punishments that are effective becomes much > more limited. However be the criminal random or causal a bullet in the > brain will most certainly alter their behavior, and sometimes for the > better. > Execution is not intended to alter the behavior of the prisoner. In order for us to have an expectation that the threat of execution could be a deterrent, we have to have an expectation that potential criminals have enough control over their own actions that that they will voluntarily choose to avoid it. We do not think that a deterrent is the same thing as a guarantee that crime cannot occur - in fact, the effectiveness of punishment as a deterrent is variable. It's up to the individuals, at least some individuals some of the time, to some extent or another, to determine for themselves whether they are deterred. Craig -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
