Philosophy Now Forum

Notvacka wrote:because I don't want to be lied to.

But how can you know if statements are all subjective?

I think what you present here is an accurate representation of how many people experience ethics. The problem is that you do not actually say what morality is. What is its relationship to punishment for instance? When someone is wrong does this mean that they can be punished or that they ought to be...

Here's another from about two and a half years ago
Freewill and Determinism

It's not really a choice in the way we would understand it as the worm really just reacts to its environment as isn't that dissimilar to the ball rolling down the hill and taking a path determined by its environment. Maybe I wasn’t quite clear. The earthworm is stopped by the rock. To me where it g...

You started out saying this: My view, which is based on scientific evidence is that bacteria don't make choices. And now you say this: I don't need to read through any of those articles to convince yourself. And I don't feel it's worth it to waste so much time quoting the relevant passages in those ...

I didn't change the terms, I introduced decision making into my definition if choice. Imagine an earthworm burrowing through the ground. It bumps straight into a rock. Whichever direction it goes in next is the result of a choice but does not involve any mental decision making. You might as well at...

I could quote all the papers listed in the reference of the wikipedia articles but won't. So there: The fact that you don’t know which article it is that proves your point demonstrates that you don’t have any evidence. Oh so now your definitions became those of the entire forum? It wasn’t me who at...

My view, which is based on scientific evidence is that bacteria don't make choices. It is the nature of evidence that one needs to show it for it to be evidence. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/choice Damn, dictionary.com don’t base their definitions on the Philosophy Now forum. Doh! ... a f...

Free will implies choice and bacteria do not make choices because making choices involves deciding between alternatives. Decisions cannot be made without at least some ability to reason, so I'm not limiting it to the human capacity for reason, but bacteria have no ability to reason. Notice how you ...

Okay, I'll humor you: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution It’s touching the faith that you have that the answers to all questions can be found on Wikipedia but the jibe about the Wiki quotes wasn’t meant to encourage you – I was wondering whether you...

John wrote:...it seems that your not defining free will in any meaningful way...

Why?

John wrote:...and certainly not in accord with the commonly accepted definition.

Well my definition is at the top of this page, let’s see your ‘commonly accepted’ version and compare.

An amusing conceit.

The thing is, not being able to put forward any sort of argument does not show that the other person is dumb.

How I see it is that this image is expressing your despair at not being able to find an argument to cut and paste from Wikipedia.

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i blame blame wrote:Do bacteria thereforet have free will?

Of course – what else do you think causes the changes that result in evolution?

To those who don’t think it exists obviously, to the rest of us it is what makes choice possible. Then please define it. Freewill: whatever it is that makes choice possible. I consider choice to be the ability to start or stop an action and I think that choice is synonymous with life so – freewill ...