RE: What do we do while deciding if free will exists?
April 14, 2015 at 5:19 pm
(This post was last modified: April 14, 2015 at 5:22 pm by Aroura.)
I'm no philosophy expert, but let me try and give you a rundown of the general idea.
Let's say person A commits a violent crime. In current society (it varies from country to country of course, but it is basically the same), once said criminal is captured, the general process is some sort of trial, followed by punishment and/or incarceration, to give people the feeling that "he got what he deserved". There might also be some "treatment" to help prevent recidivism, but most treatments are really more punishments in disguise. This ranges from abuse and torture to helping them find religion, to using modern psychiatric treatments. But in most cases, the treatments are ineffective or even make matters worse.
In a society where laws were based on a deterministic view, that same criminal might be evaluated to discover the cause of his criminal behavior. He is...brain damaged from birth (sociopath) or was heavily abused, what have you. Then his treatment would be based on correcting the underlying issues that caused his criminal behavior, instead of just punishing him for doing it. Information gathered would be used to help prevent others from ever becoming damaged in the same way. More socialism, basically.
I think Sam Harris makes a very good argument for how determinism would cause more compassion in his book "The Moral Landscape", but also in a lecture he gave at the Dangerous ideas Symposium some years ago, if anyone is interested in watching it.
On a personal level, I've accepted determinism and found that it does indeed cause me to think more compassionately, not more anarchist. When a religious person tells me I'm going to hell, it still hurts because I have emotions, but I no longer hold it against that person. I don't even need to forgive them. You can skip that step simply by understanding it is their nature, they aren't "choosing" to be a dick. IT IS like being mad at the weather, you start to realize. And then you can accept people more as they are, feel hurt less yourself, and begin to look for real answers to societal problems instead of just shifting around blame.
Let's say person A commits a violent crime. In current society (it varies from country to country of course, but it is basically the same), once said criminal is captured, the general process is some sort of trial, followed by punishment and/or incarceration, to give people the feeling that "he got what he deserved". There might also be some "treatment" to help prevent recidivism, but most treatments are really more punishments in disguise. This ranges from abuse and torture to helping them find religion, to using modern psychiatric treatments. But in most cases, the treatments are ineffective or even make matters worse.
In a society where laws were based on a deterministic view, that same criminal might be evaluated to discover the cause of his criminal behavior. He is...brain damaged from birth (sociopath) or was heavily abused, what have you. Then his treatment would be based on correcting the underlying issues that caused his criminal behavior, instead of just punishing him for doing it. Information gathered would be used to help prevent others from ever becoming damaged in the same way. More socialism, basically.
I think Sam Harris makes a very good argument for how determinism would cause more compassion in his book "The Moral Landscape", but also in a lecture he gave at the Dangerous ideas Symposium some years ago, if anyone is interested in watching it.
On a personal level, I've accepted determinism and found that it does indeed cause me to think more compassionately, not more anarchist. When a religious person tells me I'm going to hell, it still hurts because I have emotions, but I no longer hold it against that person. I don't even need to forgive them. You can skip that step simply by understanding it is their nature, they aren't "choosing" to be a dick. IT IS like being mad at the weather, you start to realize. And then you can accept people more as they are, feel hurt less yourself, and begin to look for real answers to societal problems instead of just shifting around blame.
“Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean, where's it going to end?”
― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
