Comments on: I Just Had to Post This https://blog.speculist.com/transhumanism/i-just-had-to-p.html Live to see it. Thu, 16 Dec 2021 08:21:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 By: Micah Glasser https://blog.speculist.com/transhumanism/i-just-had-to-p.html#comment-1499 Micah Glasser Thu, 04 May 2006 22:21:14 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=720#comment-1499 Phil –
Your right. I suppose I should have said that freedom and determinism do not necessarily constitute a dichotomy. However it is true that I am a compatablist but I also have a lot of respect for James’ pragmatist position. If you have ever read some of the Stoic writings, such as that of Marcus Aurelius or Seneca, my view is similar to theirs. If you haven’t read these thinkers I would highly recommend them. Their voices are just as relevant today as they were 2000 years ago and its a pleasure to read their prose.

]]> By: ivankirigin https://blog.speculist.com/transhumanism/i-just-had-to-p.html#comment-1498 ivankirigin Thu, 04 May 2006 20:04:08 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=720#comment-1498 A system that is deterministic but unpredictable is free, as far as external observers are concerned.

I’m not sure why people discuss it further.

Even if possible that our brains are 100% deterministic, does that necessarily mean it is 100% predictable? Can you have a good enough model predict actions? Probably not.

That might be different if we’re eventually based in silicon (or some other designed and engineered modality of thought)

]]> By: Phil Bowermaster https://blog.speculist.com/transhumanism/i-just-had-to-p.html#comment-1497 Phil Bowermaster Thu, 04 May 2006 12:27:45 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=720#comment-1497 Micah –

That’s a nice run-down of the various views, but I don’t follow your characterization of this as a false dichotomy. It may be false for the comps, but the incomps seem to view it as a pretty stark dichotomy. Or are you just taking the comp position and assuming that everyone else should, too?

I think I’m with William James on this one.

]]> By: Micah Glasser https://blog.speculist.com/transhumanism/i-just-had-to-p.html#comment-1496 Micah Glasser Thu, 04 May 2006 12:07:49 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=720#comment-1496 The debate between free-will and determinism is one of the most common false dichotomies I run across in philosophical discussion. Allow me to break down the various positions in the debate. First there are the compatibalists and incompatiblists. The comps say that determinism is compatible with freedom (Spinoza, Einstein, the Stoics etc,); while the incomps, of course, say they are not. Among the incomps are those who beleive that we have free-will and nothing is determined (Kierkegaard, Sartre, etc.) and those who believe that the Cosmos is determined and that we have no free-will(Augustine, Calvin, etc.).
Also a subcategory of compatibilism is the two-worlds metaphysics of such philosophers as Descartes and Kant which stipulate that the physical world is determined but that the mind is in another world and is free.
And finally their is the pragmatist position made famous by William James which asserts “The Will to Believe” in free-will as a prerequisite for living ethically and as an absolute metaphysical presupposition.

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