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Proving free will exists is like proving red exists. You can point to the wavelength (or the brain signals) and declare “that is red” (or “that is the brain sig
by pmarreck 8y ago
Proving free will exists is like proving red exists. You can point to the wavelength (or the brain signals) and declare “that is red” (or “that is the brain signature of a person deciding”) but neither of these conveys in any way the actual subjective experience of perceiving red or making decisions. Note that even if you were to, say, take a colorblind person and force them to see red by directly stimulating the relevant portion of their brain, that STILL does not neatly encompass everything there is to know about “seeing red.”
Also, what does a total lack of free will mean for the criminal justice system, which operates on the unspoken assumption that behavior is at least in part willful?
- tpetrina 8y agoSo it boils down always to moral choices - hence the whole problem is basically a problem of moral systems. Why do you build wind barriers? Same reason for prisons - to prevent future things. As best as you can. Now is that a deterministic, chaotic, stochastic or purely random but stable process - do we care that much? Should the fact that you want to punish/reward influence how you interpret the universe and logic? Human centric always free will is...
- chr1 7y ago> what does a total lack of free will mean for the criminal justice system nothing, the goal of justice system is to prevent repetition of the crime, and it works the same whether the behavior was willful or not.