4 ms·
I can define a decision: the outcome of a process that selects between multiple options. The process can be conscious, unconscious or a computer programme. Sem
by joefourier 6y ago
I can define a decision: the outcome of a process that selects between multiple options. The process can be conscious, unconscious or a computer programme.
Semantics can be tiresome but if you are unable to define a concept and must resort to “try asking a stranger” then how am I supposed to know what you are referring to? You could be referring to the legal definition of free will, the compatibilist one as espoused by Daniel Dennett, the dualistic one where consciousness exists beyond the physical universe, or one that I have not thought of. Most likely, a stranger would respond with the legal definition or a vague reference to the dualistic one.
If you cannot define it, then perhaps it has no real meaning.
- PixyMisa 6y agoExactly. If you are unable to define your terms, you can't know if your discussion is meaningful.
- blue_potato 6y ago> the outcome of a process that selects between multiple options Doesn't this just kick the can down the road? Can you define it without "select", "choose", and other synonyms?
- GoblinSlayer 6y agoReduction of the number of options to one.
- finghin 6y agoOnce again there is simply no physical grounding for the term "option". That word doesn't pick up a referent in the material world; its meaning is accrued from social and behavioural human intuition. I actually am quite interested in this topic so I don't find it tiresome. I just find it important to note that defining terms very rigidly at the outset of inquiry can often mean that you are the one diverging from the general meaning of the word, which makes the result of that inquiry a lot less beneficial. There are many theories of meaning, but there are obvious problems with the definability criterion for meaning. Does it suffice for one speaker to be able to define their terms, or must all utterers have to be able to define them? If the former, this says nothing about the use of the word free of the definition's restrictions; if the former, someone who is perhaps intelligent enough to speak but not to define their terms cannot speak with meaning (which is absurd). My own view coincides with (later) Wittgenstein. Meaning is determined by use, and there are too many ways to use a phrase in too many contexts to provide an exhaustive definition, perhaps ever. I suspect W. would tell you to imagine a primitive language with no concept of definition at all. Do their utterances have meaning?
- GoblinSlayer 6y agoOption is an idea, a referent is the state of the brain, like for any other idea.