4 ms·
I am not sure who 'most' are, but whenever the issue comes up for discussion, dualism seems to be quite well represented, including in HN. If I am not mistaken
by mannykannot 7y ago
I am not sure who 'most' are, but whenever the issue comes up for discussion, dualism seems to be quite well represented, including in HN.
If I am not mistaken, you are assuming something along the lines that the physical world is deterministic, and this implies that materialism is incompatible with free will. Quite a few philosophers and scientists (perhaps a majority) are materialists who also are "compatibilists", thinking some form of free will is available within materialism. Here's Sean Carroll discussing it lightly [1], and Daniel Dennett has expounded in depth on the question.
Personally, I am not convinced that the free will of compatibilism much resembles the sort of free will as it is commonly imagined, but regardless, the apparent inconsistency that you outline here is not necessarily so, as an incompatibilist-deterministic-materialist can presumaby think that it was inevitable that we would organize society as if we had free will!
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/arts/television/westworld-finale-devs-sean-carroll.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/arts/television/westworld...
- yters 7y agoThe article says materialism is the dominant view when it comes to the mind body problem. It could be inevitable that once modern science is discovered, that 'free will' is a useful fiction that is disposed of for a more scientifically rigorous determinism. E.g. if we can identify that certain types of brains are most productive (high IQ), and other types of brains most inclined to criminal behavior, then we can modify human genes to produce the former kind of brains and not the latter. In other words, if materialism is true, then the path forward is to figure out how to reduce the socially useful faculties to their material components, and recreate society through genetic engineering to have just the useful material components. Additionally, we would eliminate notions of property and responsibility as outdated, prescientific ideas.