RE: If free will was not real
August 5, 2016 at 2:52 pm
(This post was last modified: August 5, 2016 at 3:11 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
I disagree, an understanding of how the things we call intent (or will, or free will) play out in a deterministic framework is the -basis- for a scientific understanding of human behavior. Useful isn;t even the word. More like crucial. Such an understanding couldn't do anything -other- than tell us how to go forward. Or we could stick with malice aforethought, punitive measures, moral desert...all these things that have done so very, very well......
We needn't know exactly what stuff, or how to fix all of the stuff. A simple acknowledgement of environmental motivations and the inadequecy of our descriptions of free will suffices. It's exactly the sort of thing -we do- when we profile violent criminals and say..."well, they have this sort of pattern behind them, let's set ourselves up so that people are not subjected to "x" and that should reduce the rate of violent crime" - which it does. It would be nice to know exactly what stuff, and how to fix all the stuff, ofc...it's just not a requirement. In the same way that we learned to fly before we fully understood flight.
We needn't know exactly what stuff, or how to fix all of the stuff. A simple acknowledgement of environmental motivations and the inadequecy of our descriptions of free will suffices. It's exactly the sort of thing -we do- when we profile violent criminals and say..."well, they have this sort of pattern behind them, let's set ourselves up so that people are not subjected to "x" and that should reduce the rate of violent crime" - which it does. It would be nice to know exactly what stuff, and how to fix all the stuff, ofc...it's just not a requirement. In the same way that we learned to fly before we fully understood flight.
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