this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2023
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That is, they think all of their decisions were preordained, and then use this to claim that they can't be held responsible for anything they do.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Any claim that is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Any claim can be inverted, so lacking evidence in either direction, this applies to the inverse as well.

I personally prefer more psychologically rooted arguments that lean towards at least compatibilism. If a belief in free will, regardless of the actual fact, is sufficient to affect one's actions, is that not evidence against hard determinism?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Dismissing a claim is not equivalent to asserting the negated claim.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Right, but lacking any physical evidence in either direction, is it not reasonable to then turn to purely rational explanations if we want to arrive at some sort of belief?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why would we want to do that? Why believe things for which there is no rational basis?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

You can have a rational basis for a belief without empirical evidence (Russell's teapot, for example). The reason you'd want to do that is to simplify the model of reality you're working with in order to reduce the number of contingencies you need to account for.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nah. It just extends down. Your belief, and any changes over time, are also predetermined as some sum of your inputs.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Sure, but the compatibilist view is, in my understanding, that determinism is true, but we still have free will. The mind is so complex its deterministic function can't be fully predicted, so the outcome of particular inputs over any meaningful duration cannot be computed. Thus actual free will and the illusion of free are essentially functionally identical.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

This is all just pointless speculation.