A Refutation of Determinism

"After all, morality is about choices: murdering an innocent is presumed to be "wrong" because one could have had refrained from this action, yet chose not to."

No, what you have stated is not why murdering an innocent is considered wrong--what you have stated is why one is considered responsible for the act (i.e., that one could have chosen to refrain from the act but did not).


"If a crazy , humongous serial killer grabs my arm and uses it to beat a little old lady to death, most people would not say that I did anything wrong: while it's technically true that I beat Grandma to her grave."

No, it's not even technically true that you beat grandma. The serial killer did it using your arm, and if you either resisted or did not in any way consent to what the serial killer did with your arm, then it's not much different than the serial killer using a hammer to kill grandma (we wouldn't say that it's technically true that the hammer killed grandma).

Why do you call what you say a "refutation of determinism"? It doesn't seem to me that what you've said bears on the truth or falsehood of determinism at all.

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Are you saying that in a deterministic state(not talking about beliefs here) one can say "the devil made me do it" and that's that? This concept of determinism sounds like the sprockets on the bicycle wheel, rolling on.

Are you saying that free will is a matter of choosing or choice? Did you choose to breathe air,enter into your family, nation, race, religion, clan,etc.

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Free will simply means that the human mind is free to make SOME choices. Obviously certain things are not up to us - that's not equivalent to determinism.


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t doesn't matter if we actually have the traditional conception (or any conception) of free will - that's my point. We should act as if we are 100% sure we do, however, because to do anything otherwise is a poor decision for the reaons mentioned.


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You're playing the "as if" game which states we cannot know of a matter(or anything in it's usual context) and therefore "act as if you know but really don't know". Very pragmatic(Dewey would be proud) but this offers nothing of the matter(free will or determinism). This is a get out of jail free card.

Since when does one worship before the alter of "free will" or "determinism" in everyday life. Does your mood of soul depend upon your belief in free will or determinism? What does "belief" have to do with it. It seems that to "believe" ina matter directly implies a diminished knowledge of that particular object.

carlo



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Not sure exactly what you're getting at here. Presumably, we don't know for sure whether or not the world is deterministic. My point is simply that leaning towards determinism is silly, and we should essentially not take it even as a possibility when deciding upon our actions.

Obviously if you change the conditions on which we make a statement it could be false.