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Interview with Scott Aaronson

blogs.scientificamerican.com

81–84 of 84 posts

Re: Interview with Scott Aaronson

#81
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you distinguish decisions that were freely made from decisions made at random?

If we can't, then that says something doesn't it?

I just don't see how. It seems like a fairly obvious point that the two systems would be indistinguishable from the outside.

Re: Interview with Scott Aaronson

#82
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we can't, then that says something doesn't it?

I just don't see how. It seems like a fairly obvious point that the two systems would be indistinguishable from the outside.

In that case, the pragmatists would say that the distinction isn't meaningful, that free will is a concept with no meaning, and end the debate there.

Re: Interview with Scott Aaronson

#83
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just don't see how. It seems like a fairly obvious point that the two systems would be indistinguishable from the outside.

In that case, the pragmatists would say that the distinction isn't meaningful, that free will is a concept with no meaning, and end the debate there.

I don't think it's plausible to maintain that the question of whether or not we have free will is "meaningless". Any criterion of meaningfulness that derives that conclusion is probably faulty.

Re: Interview with Scott Aaronson

#84
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that case, the pragmatists would say that the distinction isn't meaningful, that free will is a concept with no meaning, and end the debate there.

I don't think it's plausible to maintain that the question of whether or not we have free will is "meaningless". Any criterion of meaningfulness that derives that conclusion is probably faulty.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pragmatism/
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