Artemis

I already explained why we can't physically. And, yes, the world would be different if we could.

Because evolution stopped us from being inefficient with our calories. Your brain eats up about 20% of your calories as is. Surviving in the wild mean...

I'm pretty sure summarizing concepts is more efficient. Additionally, sentences are pretty complex things that contain multitasking event of their own...

"I like fruit." Done.

Yeah, but then you wouldn't get the fun of commenting here and complaining. And I wouldn't get the fun of reading these ridiculous threads :razz:

I paused at that line as well. The voluntary part doesn't bother me: you're determined to want to choose certain things over other things. Just becaus...

Cheers! :smirk: :smirk: :smirk: :smirk: :smirk:

Apparently, that's just your interpretation and can neither be right nor wrong :smirk: :razz:

Disagree, of course! But saying we had no arguments is a bit much! :brow: :blush: :kiss:

I had the same reaction to that article. Can't wait to be a brain in a vat! (I'm not even kidding.)

I think you're being endlessly charitable by calling it a "slip" and "sloppy." There's a fine line between legal and illegal and Trump&Co just barrel ...

:roll: Not making an argument; just trying to share an article I thought was interesting.

Quote from another interesting article on the matter: "We can thus see that the free will wars – disputes about whether or not we should go around den...

Really, zhou? And here I thought we'd been getting along.... :chin:

It was determined since the big bang that I would do so. :joke: :kiss:

It doesn't appear that way at all. But since you can't explain it, I rest my case.

Until you can explain to me what about the self could be free from determinism, your entire theory is based merely on wishful thinking. For the record...

From where I'm sitting, you just keep repeating that there IS some undetermined part of the self that makes choices without being at all specific abou...

Right, it's an efficient cause. But that's not enough to claim it itself is uncaused.

How would that work?

I will agree that every choice is in itself another cause of a long line of events, so it is the efficient cause in that sense. I do not see how it is...

I was going to pull just that aspect out from your dissertation there! :wink: I agree that is a "want" that pushes us towards certain decisions, in fa...

Repeat post - my laptop bugged out on me.

So are you saying that this "want" or "motive" is determined or the part of choice that is not fully determined?

Sure, that's how we act and think in the day to day. The predetermining factors of all the thousands of decisions we make are indeed so vast that we c...

And what part of you is untouched by predetermining factors?

If you had been paying attention, you'd have noticed that I never said that people don't make choices. They do. But those choices aren't "free" or unt...

Yes, there is freedom in the choice, but that freedom of choice is dependent on being determined. On what basis would you make a choice if not by pred...

You haven't provided any substantive argument for why it wouldn't be so.

What part is not determined?

You make choices based on a mixture of your personal biology and past experiences. Take away those two things and there's nothing left of "you." There...

You'd have other reasons that caused your action, though.

If that's going to be your attitude, then there's no reason to continue this discussion.

How do you figure that? Lottery numbers are generated by computers and those have algorithms. Definitely caused and determined. If a reason causes you...

Your whim is still going to be influenced by the tastes of foods you know you like. But besides that, would you really want people going around making...

Right. And to choose a flavor absent any influences whatsoever would just be random. It wouldn't even be your "choice."

I really suggest you at least read the first article I posted. It will answer a lot of your concerns.

That's the thing: we can't think of free will as arbitrary. That wouldn't be any kind of freedom or will at all.

It's both. We use reason to make choices based on determined data.

That's because it's reasonable to choose the same thing given the same data.

It's contradictory to speak of choices and then claim free will is an illusion.

You have a simplistic and outdated understanding of free will.

It's like you didn't bother reading my post.

I think we have to rethink the standard understanding of the term "free will." Totally uncaused "free will" would just be chaos. Imagine if you made c...

:roll: By whom? You? I'll alert all feminists to report to you for ideological inspection promptly. s/ I interpret this differently than you. This, to...

That's like saying all Republicans are foaming at the mouth fascists, or that all Jews want to knife Palestinians, or that all men are rapists. Some w...

White women and black men both have some privileges and some disadvantages, just of different kinds.

I'm open to changing the term to "egalitarianism," even if that is a mouthful. I think people employ the term "feminism" because it did originate from...

It is? Modern feminism seems to be much more gender-neutral and global in scope than you assume: "They are also rendering philosophical previously un-...

FWIW, the way I understand and enact feminism is liberating and empowering for men as well. I know some people get all hung up on the term, but that's...