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Facebook’s war on free will

theguardian.com

281–284 of 284 posts

Re: Facebook’s war on free will

#281
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The non-existence of free will has no direct policy implication. Since people are deterministic, the knowledge of punishments would create different behaviors.

The non-existence of free has huge policy implications. There are many discussions of this. For example the top result on Google for me looking for "free will justice punishment" was this: https://www.orlandocriminaldefenseattorneyblog.com/2016/01/f... If a criminal has no free will, then they are not responsible for their actions since responsibility is dependent on moral agency. I disagree with that author's conclu…

The direct participants in the justice system are not the whole picture. Society is not just affected by the judgement against the defendant, but by the logical precedent of the judgement. Making fair and consistent rules has widespread impact, allowing other people to understand the consequences of their actions and respond accordingly.

A deterministic universe does not mean people do not have moral agency. It just means some people are predetermined to behave immorally. That does not mean we should not do what we can to prevent that behavior.

Re: Facebook’s war on free will

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Would it be Ok for a Buddist to interrupt a debate about criminal law with the remark that, given reincarnation, all murders are an illusion??? Maybe not but would it be ok for a Buddhist to interrupt a thread to point out that Buddhists don't believe in reincarnation? https://www.thoughtco.com/reincarnation-in-buddhism-449994

This kind of ass fuckery is why normal people hate us.

We've banned this account for violating the site guidelines.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Facebook’s war on free will

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I, too, like precision. You are attacking him, by projecting your opinion of his motivations for writing the article, imaginary motivations rooted in "his" dislike for an industry. Ascribing motivations to someone else I associate with straw man fallacy. And, you're correct -- attacking him for these instead of addressing his arguments can be defined as ad hominem.

>You are attacking him, by projecting your opinion of his motivations for writing the article, imaginary motivations rooted in "his" dislike for an industry. They aren't actually imaginary - this article is right in line with his book, which he wrote after being fired by one of the founders of Facebook. He's written and spoken quite extensively on this. Further, I didn't say those were his motivations for writing the…

Thank you for clarifying. I stand corrected :)
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