Comment

Comment on The only difference between a monster and a decent human being is the privilege of a support network.

Like I said in my previous comment, I can’t prove anything to you. And if it wasn’t obvious, I’m not trying to prove anything to you. I’m certainly not saying that free will is real because people believe in it. I’m not saying you have the burden of proof. I’m not trying to persuade you and I’m not looking for a debate.

All I was saying that, in casual conversation, it’s probably fine to speak as if it’s real because very few people will actually take objection to that.

And that has nothing to do with Christianity either. You’ll notice from that survey that the majority of professional philosophers are actually atheists too. In fact, one of the philosophers who is responsible for popularizing atheism in revent decades, Daniel Dennett, someone who is literally one of the founders of the new atheism movement, is a big proponent of free will and has written entire books on it.

source

Sort:hotnew top

SenK@lemmy.ca ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Dennett is just a determinist who really, really doesn’t want to admit he is one (probably because he’d have to admit he’s wrong and everyone hates doing that, particularly white men at the top of their fields). I’ve read him and watched his debates.

I said “culturally Christian”. You can’t just shake off the centuries of Christian philosophy that has informed Western thought by just “not believing in God”. One of the symptoms of that specifically is the belief in free will, as Christianity requires there to be some kind of a pure, untarnished essentiality to people that can choose to be evil or good. It’s been hammered into us in media since we were kids, baked into everyday language.

source
- ageedizzle@piefed.ca ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Dennett openly admits he’s a determinist, you’d know that if you actually read his books. He’s literally the world’s leading proponent of determinism. Determinists believe in free will.
  
  source
  - SenK@lemmy.ca ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    He’s a compatibilist. Which I admit we can then break down into compatibilist determinist, which is a different thing from a (hard) determinist.
    
    source
    ageedizzle@piefed.ca ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    
    Which I characterize as a determinist who really doesn’t want to admit to being one.
    
    This is not very charitable of you. Its also simply inaccurate. If they didn’t already openly admit to being determinists then they would, by definition, not be compatibilists
    
    source
    -> View More Comments