User Controls
Posts by PhD in Condom Mechanics
-
2018-11-11 at 7:48 AM UTC in The Retarded Thread: Sploo Needs Attention
-
2018-11-10 at 9:09 PM UTC in Sam Harris on the Illusion of Free Will
Originally posted by Obbe But there is no domain of control. You control the words you type in that post exactly as much as you control your beating heart, yet you feel responsible for the words. But if you were to make a spelling error while typing you would feel that you made a "mistake" even though you have no control over what your intention was. That feeling of being in control is illusory.
I feel control of these words because they're a result of my intentionality. I have no problem with the idea that my intentionality is composed of non-intentional, deterministic subsystems. They're not categorically different. It's like saying my calculator didn't generate the graph I made on it. -
2018-11-10 at 9:15 AM UTC in Sam Harris on the Illusion of Free WillGo to slep
-
2018-11-10 at 8:55 AM UTC in Sam Harris on the Illusion of Free WillI think I've said it twice. It makes a lot of sense to me; it exposes the gay way experiential or first person ideas are obscured by leaving the hypothetical "observer" or "willer".
-
2018-11-10 at 7:52 AM UTC in Sam Harris on the Illusion of Free Will
Originally posted by Obbe I don't know why you would or wouldn't, but I do think most people don't feel responsible for some of the various unconscious processes our bodies perform, and do feel responsible for others, but really aren't. I feel like I'm responsible for the words I'm typing right now but whatever is going on in my brain making me think these thoughts and have this feeling is something I actually have no influence over.
Everybody acknowledged that. Nobody really "takes credit for" their heart beating either. They take credit for the things they take to be within their domain of control. There is no additional subject "self" to control it. You're basically just committing the homunculus fallacy, but for free will; there is no "double willing". -
2018-11-09 at 5:02 PM UTC in Sam Harris on the Illusion of Free Will
Originally posted by Obbe I don't think there a problem, just pointing out that most people feel responsible for the words they type but not for the way their body metabolizes the foods they eat, even though they they have just as much influence over the causes of these events.
No, that's completely false; they have just as much influence over the ultimate causes of either event (which is none). But they have completely different relations as a proximal cause to either event, and that's what simply explains their feeling of responsibility (and the utility therein). We explicitly take responsibility for things that were a result of a state of our intentionality, and not things that weren't. Most people wouldn't "take responsibility for" generating shit in their lower torso either. I'm telling you, there's a perfectly reasonable way to validate that feeling, and that feeling is consistent with science in all ways but the specific one that serves an explanatory bridge.
Do you take responsibility for the way the "glutamates in your brain underwent their quantum processes"? Is that something you feel you freely willed?
Okay good, so we agree that "doing otherwise" is completely irrelevant, and the discussion is entirely about the responsibility aspect.
Then yes! The glutamates are an important element of my neurology and my neurology is the direct proximal cause of my consciousness and decision making. Why wouldn't "I" take responsibility for it? -
2018-11-09 at 3:33 PM UTC in Sam Harris on the Illusion of Free WillAdditional point: imagine if I did in fact rewind time and you did something differently because of the way the glutamates in your brain underwent their quantum processes randomly, would that be free will?
-
2018-11-09 at 3:27 PM UTC in Sam Harris on the Illusion of Free Will
Originally posted by Obbe Do you believe people don't feel responsible for when their immune systems start attacking them, but do feel responsible when they write something, even though both instances are caused by prior events they had no influence over?
Of course, but why do you think that's a problem? You have to have some description of "had influence over" to even rationally use the contrapositive of "had no influence over". The entire point is that there is a reasonable (and very useful) bound to define that. We have a sense of responsibility that lies at the core of our social structure, and we can give you a perfectly consistent account for the rational roots of that sense (which we don't directly have intuitive access to). What other account of responsibility even matters? Certainly not the invisible dragon one you're clinging so hard to. -
2018-11-09 at 1:03 PM UTC in Sam Harris on the Illusion of Free Will
Originally posted by Obbe Right, but I think most people do feel that they are ultimate cause of their intentions and decisions. I don't you need to agree. I don't believe most people associate their thought intentions and actions with the chain of cause and effect that came before, they feel like it's something they are in absolute control over, and when their bodies do something unexpected like sudden organ failure they feel like victims of their biology rather then the bosses, even though there isn't really a difference.
Ok, simple questions
1) Do you think most people would agree that their parents' behaviours toward them contributed to the way they turned out?
2) Do you think that whenever people make a choice, they make it completely apropos of nothing and in a total vacuum from their past experiences?
3) Nothing about our classical understanding of gravity was retained between Newton and Einstein, except the phenomenon of "attraction" itself. And practically all scientists believer in Newtonian gravitation for a very long time. Do you condone the continued use of the word "gravity" or is your first response to it that it doesn't exist and we should call it Grangpo? -
2018-11-09 at 12:54 PM UTC in The Retarded Thread: Sploo Needs Attention
-
2018-11-09 at 8:22 AM UTC in I wanna wear a suit and smoke cigarettes moodily in a classy bar while listening to 60s jazzYou can't pull off that look.
-
2018-11-09 at 8:03 AM UTC in Money has no actual real value
-
2018-11-09 at 8:02 AM UTC in Vaping is such an ingenious drug delivery method
-
2018-11-08 at 11:59 PM UTC in Vaping is such an ingenious drug delivery method
-
2018-11-08 at 9:23 PM UTC in Fupajujulo Trog
-
2018-11-08 at 6:49 PM UTC in Fupajujulo Trog
-
2018-11-08 at 6:48 PM UTC in several notes about self awareness
-
2018-11-08 at 6:48 PM UTC in Users you would do
-
2018-11-08 at 6:47 PM UTC in GOD TIER condiment uses
-
2018-11-08 at 6:47 PM UTC in Makeup sex
