I spent a while practicing the ability to see / be aware of and empathize with the pain of others a while back as part of an effort to learn universal love. I endorse having done so, and I still think he’s a piece of shit. It’s just that, much like the dog dump on the lawn, he can’t help being what he is; he’s made of atoms that follow physical law. I don’t think that free will is a thing, and I don’t think between his genetic and environmental inheritances he ever had a real chance to be better. Doesn’t mean I want him to have his tiny hands on the power that gives his cold black heart the closest thing it ever has to happiness (the feeling of not just not wanting to throw hamberders at the wall, but the feeling of wanting not to throw hamberders at the wall), just that it’s sorrowful he is that way, and I wish he could get real help for the sickness inside.
I’m somewhere along the same lines, but stop short at not believing in free will. He came from terrible circumstances with a sociopathic father and distant mother, but there are plenty who come from similar backgrounds and overcome being huge pieces of shit, let alone being responsible for countless deaths because of his actions.
So, yes, other people had similar environmental circumstances, but they weren’t the same environmental circumstances, and they weren’t experienced with the same brains. Nobody gets to pick their neural arrangements, and even if in some hypothetical sense you did, you wouldn’t get to pick the algorithms you did the picking with. There’s an infinite regress there, unless you acknowledge that it grounds out in you get the mind you get. Libertarian free will doesn’t seem to map to anything in reality, and while I’m always willing to update on new evidence, it’s been a long time since anyone’s presented anything really novel in that area.
If free will isn’t a thing then why are you urging us to empathize? There’s nothing you can say or do that will influence my behavior in the slightest. Sorry, I don’t have a choice: I hope he dies in prison miserable and alone.
If marbles don’t have free will, why does putting them into a marble maze lead to them rolling? That you cannot stand apart from your mind and reason with some perfect algorithm that doesn’t mean that you cannot be influenced. I’m a part of your environment.
Also, I’m not necessarily trying to shape your perspective; I’m sharing mine. I’m not saying you’re wrong to have that viewpoint, I just prefer the person I am when I’m not generating that as much as when I’m generating that him existing as the person he is, is a tragedy.
I spent a while practicing the ability to see / be aware of and empathize with the pain of others a while back as part of an effort to learn universal love. I endorse having done so, and I still think he’s a piece of shit. It’s just that, much like the dog dump on the lawn, he can’t help being what he is; he’s made of atoms that follow physical law. I don’t think that free will is a thing, and I don’t think between his genetic and environmental inheritances he ever had a real chance to be better. Doesn’t mean I want him to have his tiny hands on the power that gives his cold black heart the closest thing it ever has to happiness (the feeling of not just not wanting to throw hamberders at the wall, but the feeling of wanting not to throw hamberders at the wall), just that it’s sorrowful he is that way, and I wish he could get real help for the sickness inside.
I’m somewhere along the same lines, but stop short at not believing in free will. He came from terrible circumstances with a sociopathic father and distant mother, but there are plenty who come from similar backgrounds and overcome being huge pieces of shit, let alone being responsible for countless deaths because of his actions.
So, yes, other people had similar environmental circumstances, but they weren’t the same environmental circumstances, and they weren’t experienced with the same brains. Nobody gets to pick their neural arrangements, and even if in some hypothetical sense you did, you wouldn’t get to pick the algorithms you did the picking with. There’s an infinite regress there, unless you acknowledge that it grounds out in you get the mind you get. Libertarian free will doesn’t seem to map to anything in reality, and while I’m always willing to update on new evidence, it’s been a long time since anyone’s presented anything really novel in that area.
If free will isn’t a thing then why are you urging us to empathize? There’s nothing you can say or do that will influence my behavior in the slightest. Sorry, I don’t have a choice: I hope he dies in prison miserable and alone.
If marbles don’t have free will, why does putting them into a marble maze lead to them rolling? That you cannot stand apart from your mind and reason with some perfect algorithm that doesn’t mean that you cannot be influenced. I’m a part of your environment.
Also, I’m not necessarily trying to shape your perspective; I’m sharing mine. I’m not saying you’re wrong to have that viewpoint, I just prefer the person I am when I’m not generating that as much as when I’m generating that him existing as the person he is, is a tragedy.