'Trick Slattery's Blog, page 8
March 19, 2015
Otherwise a Causal Contradiction
It’s surprising how many people try to suggest that we could have done otherwise(sometimes abbreviated as CHDO online) in an entirely causal(deterministic) universe, when discussing the free will debate. And it’s always surprising how many people don’t recognize the contradiction of such. In my book I point this out with numerous demonstrations, but for this article I just want to get to the vegan-meat and potatoes. First let’s address what we mean by “could have done otherwise”. This statem...
March 12, 2015
Dennett’s “Free Will” vs a Free Will Not Worth Wanting
Daniel Dennett, author of Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wantingand Freedom Evolves,is a philosopher that is considered a free will “compatibilist”. What this means is that Dennett accepts that the universe is deterministic orthat even if there was indeterminism, such wouldn’t help free will such aswhatlibertarians think (different than political libertarians) – but at the same time he thinks free will is compatible with determinism.
On the other hand, hard determinists and har...
March 5, 2015
Freely Willed Decisions are Even Intuitively Nonsensical!
The free will debate can get into a lot of philosophical discussions on determinism, indeterminism, causality, acausality, and can get into some pretty heavy topics such as quantum mechanics, theories of time, and a bunch of other really complex discussions. For this article I’m going to move away from all of this high level stuff and take things to a more intuitive level. If you are looking for some insight on howquantum mechanics can’t help free will (which it can’t by the way), this is not...
February 26, 2015
Existence Conflated with Knowledge and the Free Will Debate
A common occurrencethat happens in the free will debate is the conflation between what “is” or what “exists” with what we can or cannot “know”. In philosophical terms such is the conflation between an ontic understanding and an epistemic understanding. In case the philosophical terms arise in a discussion, all you really need to know is that ontology is the study of what exists, is real, or the nature and properties of “being”, while epistemology is the study of what we can know and how we ca...
February 19, 2015
Deserve Justifies Inequality
In this article I want to get peoplethinking about the types of things that justify inequality. And when I say “inequality” I mean inequality of anything at all, but for the most part let’s address inequality of well-being (e.g. wealth, health, etc.). What are the reasons one might justify their own well-beingat the expense of another, with such justification being rational if we were to accept the reason?
From what I can tell, most, if not all, entitlement of well-being over another’s lesser...
February 12, 2015
Brain Noise Being Labeled as Free Will? Not So Fast!
According to a study from the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis, random fluctuations in the brain’s “background electrical noise” might have a say in our decisions. An article on theucdavis.edu website suggests that this could possibly be labeled “free will“. In other words, it opens the free will door.
Take a look at the article here:
Does ‘free will’ stem from brain noise?
Thearticle is brief,but has some conclusions thatsimply do no follow from what is explained...
February 5, 2015
“Determinism” and “Indeterminism” for the Free Will Debate
The words “determinism” and “indeterminism” tend to causea lots o’confusion when they are used. That’s because, as with manywords/terms, they can often be used with ambiguous meanings. This post is going to point to some of these usages and also to the common usage that’s of importance for the debate on free will.
Let’s start with determinism and look at the possible ways this has been used by others.
For manysuch as myself, determinism is interlinked entirely with causality. It says something...
January 30, 2015
A Cause Cannot Have Multiple Possible Effects – Infographic
A Cause Cannot Have Multiple Possible Effects
An assessment that ties into the free will debate!
If X is both the cause of Y and not the cause of Y (e.g. of Z instead), X is self-contradictory.
Self-contradictions are logically impossible
X cannot logically be both the cause of Y and not the cause of Y
In other words:
If a cause has the properties that leads to an effect, for it to have the properties to NOT lead to that effect (but to another one instead), the cause’s properties must be different...
January 29, 2015
Consciousness Can Exist without Free Will
A common mistake associated with the idea of free will not existing is people thinking such follows to the conclusion that consciousness doesn’t exist either (Yes, I’ve had numerous people argue consciousness can’t exist without it). This, however, does not follow. There’s mounds of evidence for consciousness, and none for free will (the ability to have, of one’s own accord, done otherwise), and the lack of free will does not implicate a lack of consciousness.
Consciousness, though complicated...
January 26, 2015
Kindle Countdown Deal – Breaking the Free Will Illusion…
…for the Betterment of Humankind!
For a limited time the Kindle version of Breaking the Free Will Illusion for the Betterment of Humankind will be having an awesome deal (amazon.com and amazon.co.uk only).
Starting Thursday January 29 @ 8AM PST and ending Thursday February 5th at12AM PST (or midnight on Wednesday), the Kindle version will be having what is called a “Countdown Deal”. So how does a countdown deal work?
The price will start at 99 CENTS and go back up to the full price on February 5...
