Article View: comp.ai
Article #8371Re: Free will and responsibility.
From: Brian Colfer
Date: Thu, 01 Jun 1989 06:40
Date: Thu, 01 Jun 1989 06:40
30 lines
2469 bytes
2469 bytes
In article <32091@sri-unix.SRI.COM> ellis@chips2.sri.com.UUCP (Michael Ellis) writes:
> Just how does a tie-breaking random number generator count as making
> a radically free choice, one that is authentically one's own, not
> determined by the the whims or constraints of another being?
>
This is at least similar to Sartre's position: either every action
is free or every action is determined. His contention is that you are
ultimately responsible for every action that you take. Michael, do you
think that a libertarian like your self is essentially a radical
exsistentialist?
>> Barry Kort
>>..Are you now convinced that at least one living mind is not completely
>>determined? (Feel free to be reasonable, if you so choose.)
Michael is unimpressed and so am I for obviously different reasons.
When I was an undergraduate many years ago my Prof. Kirk Gable told me that
my concerns about free will were fundamentally a waste of time. One of
his reasons were that if behaviorism works as an acurate model for how we
live our lives and proves useful for helping people in education, mental
health and other similar endevours then who cares about free will.
Well, in a sense he's right but I always enjoy discussions about the
fundamental nature of humanity.
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Brian | UC San Francisco | E-mail: USENET, Internet, BITNET
Colfer | Dept. of Lab. Medicine |..!{ucbvax,uunet}!daedalus.ucsf.edu!brianc
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| PH. 415-476-2325 | BRIANC@UCSFCCA.BITNET
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<10333@ihlpb.ATT.COM> <3850@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <52019@linus.UUCP> <1309@lzfme.att.com> <1966@ucsfcca.ucsf.edu> <528@orawest.UUCP> <1979@ucsfcca.ucsf.edu> <53788@linus.UUCP> <32091@sri-unix.SRI.COM>Show Full Headers
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!cca.ucsf.edu!daedalus!brianc From: brianc@daedalus (Brian Colfer) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: Free will and responsibility. Summary: Libertarianism = Existentialism Keywords: Libertarianism, behaviorism , existentialism Message-ID: <2008@ucsfcca.ucsf.edu> Date: 1 Jun 89 06:40:12 GMT References: <10333@ihlpb.ATT.COM> <3850@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <52019@linus.UUCP> <1309@lzfme.att.com> <1966@ucsfcca.ucsf.edu> <528@orawest.UUCP> <1979@ucsfcca.ucsf.edu> <53788@linus.UUCP> <32091@sri-unix.SRI.COM> Sender: news@cca.ucsf.edu Reply-To: brianc@daedalus.UUCP (Brian Colfer) Organization: UCSF Dept. of Lab Med Lines: 30