John Gould, Studied at Technical University Eindhoven
The question was asked..
If the universe follows causality, how can there be free will?
I challenged Viktor T. Toth..
Victor: “Does this machine have free will, in your opinion? Because if you say it doesn’t, I have to ask: What exactly does it take for an entity to have free will? Is it the lack of deterministic behavior?”
Me: “Humans have non-programmed desire and the will (and often the means) to fulfill them. Machines are doing what they’ve been programmed to do, whether they be sophisticated programs or pocket-calculator-simple.”
John: “Humans have non-programmed desire”
I could agree with “Humans have desire”. How do we know about this unprogrammed part you added?
Me: “I suppose we don’t. There’s evidence that desire for sex is a program which is the lack of logical rationale for being aroused by particular body shapes/parts. That being said, the desire for pleasantness can only make sense if there is an experiencer (subject rather than object) that can benefit from pleasantness.
John: “That being said, the desire for pleasantness can only make sense if there is an experiencer (subject rather than object) that can benefit from pleasantness.” I can agree with that, but from that does not follow any lack of programming. For all I know, subjects might well be emergent from objects! (And of course, for all I know, it might not be). Or more simply put, the fact that I feel and experience does not entail that this feeling and experiencing is not itself ‘programmed’, a consequence of our structure if you will.
Me: “Programming is done for a purpose. Who is the programmer?”
John: “That’s mere wordplay Stephane. You chose the phrase programming, which suggests a programmer. I’d have used the word deterministic, which does not imply a determiner. There need be no who, nor even a what!”
Me: ““I’d have used the word deterministic, which does not imply a determiner.” Can you support that claim?
John: “The semantics of words is defined by a dictionary. Deviation from that semantics is of course allowed, but must be explicitly noted. So, what does that dictionary tell you?”
Me: “de·ter·min·is·tic
dəˌtərməˈnistik/
adjective
- relating to the philosophical doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes regarded as external to the will.
There’s mention of ‘causes’.
What are the causes?
No comments:
Post a Comment