Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: July 25, 2025, 12:57 pm

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Does Free Will actually exist? Is there a way to tell?
#40
RE: Does Free Will actually exist? Is there a way to tell?
Same answer as I gave Prof, Iatia. Is it not your hand that pushes the knife? Or, appraoched from a more familiar angle, with free will intact - when you are unintentionally the cause of damage, no choice made by you to do damage... are you not still responsible, will we not hold you accountable? We already understand the concept of responsibility/culpability without intent...so why would that somehow change if I removed "free will"?

We might change our idea of what to do when we assign responsibility, sure....but we already assign it regardless of whether or not one made some "free will" choice to do this or that. What changes, as Ras(estsu!) is fond of reminding people, is more likely the notion of moral desert. You can imagine a situation in which you don't deserve this or that consequence based on diminished or non-existent intent, which may be true..but it won't necessarily change how we handle you after that fact. Even if we accept absolute compulsion...as in the case of some nutjob who just can't stop stabbing people - can't..not won't...can't-, we don't wring our hands and say "Well gee fellas, he has no choice so I guess we'll just let him go" ....we lock him up, regardless of whether or not he has a choice. Sometimes we accept that people absolutely have chosen to do something that one or many of us may find objectionable, such as killing another person. We decide, even with the choice, not to assign responsibility for their actions on them...and instead...assign responsibility for the event and subsequent action to the aggressor...and call it "self defense".

We already do all of this, our system and concepts of responsibility already work without any need to refer to the "free will" of some party. -Then-...at the other end of this..we certainly aren't interested in the "free will" of the convicted..are we?
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
Reply



Messages In This Thread
RE: Does Free Will actually exist? Is there a way to tell? - by The Grand Nudger - January 27, 2015 at 8:49 pm

Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Tell me, what makes this wrong. NegievProsnasol 58 1523 July 23, 2025 at 8:08 pm
Last Post: Angrboda
  The right way to be and the wrong way to be Ahriman 57 7547 April 29, 2022 at 9:23 am
Last Post: Angrboda
  Ever been treated this way? Strange Vague Story. Disagreeable 18 2396 January 31, 2022 at 1:42 pm
Last Post: Disagreeable
  Cold - either way. onlinebiker 12 1349 January 23, 2021 at 8:15 pm
Last Post: Gawdzilla Sama
  Are there any active, free, text-only chat sites that are still going? Mechaghostman2 6 1220 January 4, 2021 at 3:56 pm
Last Post: arewethereyet
  Do femicides really exist? Macoleco 27 3660 September 21, 2020 at 9:12 pm
Last Post: Sal
Thumbs Up Tell me YOUR weather is this screwed up. onlinebiker 5 1058 April 15, 2020 at 12:59 pm
Last Post: brewer
  There's social distancing, and then there's SOCIAL DISTANCING!!!!! Gawdzilla Sama 8 1432 March 24, 2020 at 10:53 pm
Last Post: Fireball
  This is how bored I actually am Cod 0 511 October 2, 2019 at 7:10 am
Last Post: Cod
  The proper way to breastfeed in public Silver 21 2927 April 21, 2019 at 7:29 am
Last Post: Gawdzilla Sama



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)