RE: Nihilism
January 11, 2018 at 11:27 pm
(This post was last modified: January 11, 2018 at 11:30 pm by Whateverist.)
I think too often people think "no free will" means it doesn't matter what you do, as if determinism amounted to puppet strings that would dance you around the same with or without your involvement. But that is incorrect.
We're one of three remaining chimp species and like every other animal we are electrochemical meat machines programmed by eons of evolution to have certain responses to certain kinds of stimuli. So no, we're not just an independent brain rationally picking our way through life. But our rational minds very much do give us an advantage in achieving the kinds of ends evolution has disposed us to desire. Hey, who wants to be a machine? As animals with souped up frontal lobes we kick ass. There is plenty to do which requires our attention and participation if we want to actually get what we are disposed to want. Or, boo hoo, we can whine about not getting to decide independently which tastes we'd prefer to have.
We're one of three remaining chimp species and like every other animal we are electrochemical meat machines programmed by eons of evolution to have certain responses to certain kinds of stimuli. So no, we're not just an independent brain rationally picking our way through life. But our rational minds very much do give us an advantage in achieving the kinds of ends evolution has disposed us to desire. Hey, who wants to be a machine? As animals with souped up frontal lobes we kick ass. There is plenty to do which requires our attention and participation if we want to actually get what we are disposed to want. Or, boo hoo, we can whine about not getting to decide independently which tastes we'd prefer to have.
