Pantagruel

What if our brains develop to be interlinked with one another through some as yet to be evolved mechanism? For such a social mind, existing socio-poli...

Re. your first point, I have made it quite clear this is a choice and assumption. I don't have to prove meliorism to you, only to my self. I embrace m...

People are not in the habit of justifying their lives to one another. That is what life is for. My life speaks for itself, as do my words. If I say I ...

Who are you to pronounce truths about my life? That is black letter ad hominem and I am offended. It is certainly a commentary on you.

If a human being unreflectively and uncritically adheres to a set of beliefs aren't they, ipso facto, responsible?

I think attempting to live by a set of universalizable rules is the most practical way to make the world a better place, expressing itself in one's ev...

I'm conforming to my own system, thank you very much. And the standard to which I hold that conformance is the currency of my own happiness and the ha...

Well, my efforts at understanding have culminated in the discovery and embrace of a lot of highly "social" philosophies (like Mead, Marx, Habermas) wh...

In the way that you just rejected meliorism, which I endorse. I think that is pretty straightforward.

Then that is what they call a "fundamental disagreement". I think that I can make a positive contribution, you think you cannot.

It's just the difference between optimism and pessimism really, isn't it?

You cannot simply divorce humanity from nature by fiat. Whether you approve or disprove of our actions, we are as much a part of nature as everything ...

Made it through Capital, volume I in about seven weeks. Starting Capital, volume II. It's the smallest of the three volumes, weighing in at a meagre 6...

"You imply disparity where none exists"

Given the fact that most atheists (I have encountered) tend to be of the proselytizing variety, perhaps "rejection of religious ideology" would be mor...

Not necessarily invalid, merely arbitrary.

Yes, I thought you were talking about some kind of social collective basically, and were using the term "state" loosely. I notice you mention Weber. H...

As I said, the human race is as much a part of the universe as anything else, so your premise, or rather, your objection to my premise, is flawed.

I think there is a significant difference between an organic community (family/clan/tribe) and one that is institutionalized (polity)

This is true. The state is an institution which appeared relatively late in the collective project.

Is it possible that this psychological response to the edict of hard-determinism is an argument against that hypothesis?

Actually, there is a strong biological foundation for "delayed reaction" being fundamental to the development of more sophisticated responses (and res...

Why would you eliminate humanity from the equation? That was never part of the discussion. The human species is as much a part of the world (universe)...

No, it is quite another thing. As said, you would need to be sufficiently versed in the vocabulary and concepts of Systems Philosophy to be able to gr...

I would agree that there is some kind of a "gradient" applicable to the choices of free-will. It seems that you might be operating in a framework of m...

:up: Thanks!

Or choosing Coke instead of Pepsi? Like that?

Which is why I posted. I don't understand "making present an alternative possible future"? It is all so abstract, I cannot relate to it. Free-will equ...

Sounds ok to me. So what is the proper definition of "free-will" which you are suggesting?

Agreed. Stoicism has this sense of dispassion. But I think not all stoicism really implies this. There was some discussion of this around the M. Pigli...

It helps if you can learn to adjust your concept of mind. Systems Philosophy takes the phenomena of complex adaptive systems as fundamental. So what w...

I provide IT support in the medical community. Typically, having computer problems and dealing with your tech guy is pretty stressful. These folks hav...

I find that different people are motivated by different objectives which can result in differing perspectives on the same thing, or differing uses of ...

I have cultivated this state of mind for ages, with much success. Near the end of my undergrad, in the late eighties, I was reading in a Greek diner n...

Yes, I know Syamsu believes in free will, I would never post to argue it. I don't think he realized I also endorse it, which is why I wondered if he w...

What's to understand? I will...I do. It's not rocket science. It's an empirical fact.

Sorry. Maybe english is not your first language? @"Pfhorrest" I agree with Popper that the burden of proof rests with the determinists. Personally, I ...

That is not a standard definition of free-will. A typical definition of free-will looks like this: free will /?fr? ?wil/ noun the power of acting with...

The only thing bizarre is your failure to follow a simple example. Gravity works. We knew that millenia before we knew what gravity was. Free-will is ...

People knew that massive objects fall to earth millenia before Isaac Newton explained "how it works." It is self-evident that people have free-will. W...

I did read your post. I just don't believe free will is a problem, it is a phenomenon.

Ok, well that appears to be one person's summary. And even if there is such a thing as randomness, how does this imply that the will is subject to ran...

I have never heard the argument that free will is random. Which professional philosophers make this claim?

Based on other arguments I've read of his, this seems plausible.

Well, surely it is true that man evolved as a social creature before he developed a genuine sense of self? That at least is George Mead's hypothesis, ...

Well, you phrase the question as the individual or the State, but the State appears only late in human history. If instead of State we substitute comm...

This - It is a byproduct of hierarchical organisation of systems. An emergent phenomenon Except more neutrally put: An embedded phenomenon which is a ...

I think it is just part of the natural evolution of knowledge. Like any system, it evolves into a greater and greater differentiation of sub-systems, ...

To sum up, consciousness is the awareness of the real effects of consciousness as embodied and documented in culture: The evolutionary appearance of m...

Cogito ergo sum