Schoolteachers sometimes say things like this: ‘I don’t mind a stupid pupil, but I do dislike a lazy one.’ In the grip of the hard determinist argument, you might think that this is just prejudice: some people are born stupid and pitied for it; why should those born lazy not be similarly pitied for that? It is just tough luck, either way. But the schoolteacher’s attitude will have a point if laziness responds to incentives in a way that stupidity does not. If respect for the teacher’s opinion can make you work harder, whereas it cannot make you smarter, then there is one justification for the
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