On 14 May 2015 at 09:40, LizR <[email protected]> wrote: > On 14 May 2015 at 05:46, John Clark <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> >> The only other meaning of "free will" that I know of that isn't gibberish >> is the inability to always know what we will do next before we do it even in >> an unchanging environment, but almost nobody uses that meaning so all that >> remains is the sound that chunks of meat make when they flap together. > > > I agree with you on this one. FW as the inability to know what someone will > do next (including yourself) seems the only meaningful definition. In fact > the suggestion that it has some greater meaning leads to the idea that > someone born poor, who is as a result uneducated and can only get menial > jobs (say) is somehow "responsible" for their position in society because > they've "failed" in some way, and they are then blamed (particularly by > people of a right wing persuasion) for something theyhad no control over. > > So it's actually a dangerous notion politically, and not just > philosophically meaningless.
No-one's ever to blame for anything. If they did it because that's the way their brain is it's not their fault, and if they did it due to irreducible randomness it's not their fault. However, punishment and reward can be used to guide behaviour in desirable directions, whether it is driven by determinism or randomness. -- Stathis Papaioannou -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
