blog entries for 2003/11/1

entry #1

:: Daniel Dennett's take on Free will, but not as we know it. He argues that determinism is the friend of free will:

Here is another way to think about it. Something is inevitable for you if there is nothing you can do about it. If an undetermined bolt of lightning strikes you dead, then we can truly say there was nothing you could have done about it. You had no advance warning. In fact, if you are faced with the prospect of running across an open field in which lightning bolts may strike, you will be better off if their timing and location is determined by something, since then they may be predictable by you, and hence avoidable. Determinism is the friend, not the foe, of those who dislike inevitability. This should help break the traditional link between determinism and despair.

[posted at 2003-11-01 16:49:00] TrackBack