RE: R'lyeh rule
February 17, 2016 at 5:57 pm
(This post was last modified: February 17, 2016 at 5:59 pm by Excited Penguin.)
Sam Harris' obvious contextual use of the word fatalism(to explain something entirely different than what I'm referring to) aside, here are the definitions for fatalism and determinism. Tell me in which way don't they match.
Fatalism - the belief that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable.
Determinism - the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will. Some philosophers have taken determinism to imply that individual human beings have no free will and cannot be held morally responsible for their actions.
Thus, if you don't believe in free will, you can't possibly think anything is in your control - since you don't have any free will. Notice I'm not arguing that you should just sit still all day and do nothing because of this, because exactly like Harris said, this would be practically impossible to do and would be a choice in itself.
I think one has to keep in mind that Harris isn't always addressing a sophisticated enough audience(at least not intentionally), in fact he's almost certainly doing just the opposite most of the time. This allows for some ambiguity in interpreting him, at times.
Let's take this to my Brainstorm thread, if you please.
Fatalism - the belief that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable.
Determinism - the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will. Some philosophers have taken determinism to imply that individual human beings have no free will and cannot be held morally responsible for their actions.
Thus, if you don't believe in free will, you can't possibly think anything is in your control - since you don't have any free will. Notice I'm not arguing that you should just sit still all day and do nothing because of this, because exactly like Harris said, this would be practically impossible to do and would be a choice in itself.
I think one has to keep in mind that Harris isn't always addressing a sophisticated enough audience(at least not intentionally), in fact he's almost certainly doing just the opposite most of the time. This allows for some ambiguity in interpreting him, at times.
Let's take this to my Brainstorm thread, if you please.
