(June 15, 2015 at 12:52 am)bennyboy Wrote:(June 15, 2015 at 12:35 am)Aroura Wrote: And yet, you realize you have constrained will, yet you still act every day as if you have unconstrained free-will, because that is how humans are biologically wired to behave.
I can realize that it is just some hormones in my brain that are causing me to be depressed. An amputee may realize it is that their hand is gone and it can't feel pain anymore yet still suffer phantom pain syndrome. In both cases just realizing the truth changes nothing about how our biology reacts.
However, in all the cases above, we can stop and think make long term changes to our behavior through other behavioral modifiers, like bio-feedback therapy. The act of REALIZATION itself does not change much, but it opens the door to make changes in other ways.
Does that make sense?
I certainly see many constraints. For example, I'm overweight (not much, but enough to care), and yet the ongoing collage of desires and impulses lead me to rest rather than exercise more, or to eat foods that are counter to the goals I have.
Yes, I accept that a belief isn't necessarily able to overcome impulses, habits or automatic behaviors. But when it comes to overt expressions of hatred toward others, who in theory are believed not really to have free will, that's different. It amounts to "Fuck you for doing what you inevitably were going to do!" and sounds very strange to me.
Generally expressions of hatred or anger are passion based, it's silly to think someone can overcome their biology when they are reacting inteh heat of passion without thinking at all. It's the long term thought out changes, the doors that the realization opens, that change things.
When I became an atheist, on the day I said to myself, "Ok, I admit it to myself, I don't believe in God anymore", nothing changed. I was still me. My behavior and thoughts have changed over time because of it, but not suddenly.
There was no drastic evolution of my mind.
And it's really insulting to keep insinuating that determinism should somehow be any different. Especially when free-will behavior is hard wired into the brain, making the behavioral changes even harder.
The behavioral changes still can and do happen though. Do you truly deny that society recognizing that people's behavior is (in some cases) determined has not drastically changed society for the better over time?
“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
