RE: Do you believe in free will?
March 26, 2012 at 8:10 pm
(This post was last modified: March 26, 2012 at 8:12 pm by Whateverist.)
(March 26, 2012 at 7:22 pm)NoMoreFaith Wrote: Using Coercion in its sense of being forced into something you don't want to do rather than the compulsion to act fucked things up quite royally.
Much of your responses now are getting slightly offensive to be honest, such as the little dig that I "act before I think".
Maybe when we cool a little bit, we should have a more formal debate together, and we can agree on the correct usage of terms before hand. I feel most of our conversations have been wasted in us both (I've been guilty of it as well) misusing terms in the wrong places.
But don't you see, you will either cool down or not and agree on the usage of terms or not, exactly as your enviro-/experiential/DNA dictates. There is no need and no possibility of deciding differently. If you'd been born with all the factors that have gone into determining Genkaus' perspective, then you'd have no choice but to argue his side. If you're right about determinism then you can't win. Reasoning is futile. Those thoughts which confirm or undermine your position are just more 'givens'. If you have no free will, you have no reason to give more credence to your thoughts than to Genkaus'. If you can see through the illusion of your apparent free will then why stop there? Why accept the thoughts and opinions that are given to you to think? Why suppose that what seems reasonable or rational to you is any more reliable than the illusion of your free will? In short, if you don't have free will, can you possibly have 'free thought'?
