thoughts on determinism

[iambiguous]

Natural reactions are precisely what some hardcore determinists attribute to everything that we think or feel or say or do. Though, sure, if someone here is able to note a demonstrable proof encompassing how our emotions “somehow” transcend the laws of matter…

greenfuse:

Again, he didn’t assert that they transcend the laws of matter. He said nothing about emotions being free from determinism. At least not in what you’ve quoted.

And around and around we go. The particularly hardcore determinists argue that he didn’t assert that because he was never able to assert it. And if his brain compelled him to say what he did about emotions, what difference does it make what it compelled him to say or feel…about anything.

Though, again, I readily acknowledge this: that I may not be understanding the author’s point, Strawson’s point or your point.

greenfuse

What did he write that makes you think he thinks emotions transcend the laws of matter?

More to the point [mine] if whatever I think about what he thought about emotions, neither one of us were ever able to freely opt not to think, what we think about them in and of itself is all fated, destined?

And, again, given free will, thoughts and feelings exchanged in the is/ought world are [for me] no less rooted existentially in dasein. The question then becomes this…are my thoughts and feelings about dasein itself also just another inherent manifestation of the only possible reality?

Nurana Rajabova:

By drawing attention to this common human psychology, Strawson argues that we all possess these reactive attitudes as a human disposition and as a “fact of human society.” He then argues that this is indeed an indication that ascribing moral responsibility is a justified practice, since doing so is simply one of our natural reactive attitudes. It’s not only justified, it’s inevitable, we might say. It’s not only justified, it’s inevitable, we might say.

greenfuse:

Inevitable is hardly indicating that that it’s transcending the determinist laws of matter.

I just don’t make a distinction between what we think, feel, say and do and how we react to what others think, feel, say and do. If it’s dominoes, it’s dominoes all the way down. Unless, of course, the mind-boggling domino that is the human brain is like no other matter there has ever been…It really did “somehow” acquire autonomy. And there is no fucking way I would ever rule that out.

Really, try to connect the dots between the Big Bang and the human species and Smart Phones. What could possibly be more unimaginable…other than by way of God?

After all, no matter how sophisticated science is in explaining how things work in the universe, how much closer are they to explaining why it is how it is.

On the other hand, given how I understand determinism “here and now”, if the brain is but more matter, then the fact that it thinks or emotes or embodies various psychological states, etc., is no less attributable to the “laws of matter”.

greenfuse:

Again, he seems to be saying that it is inevitable and natural. What about those words lead to you thinking our reaction outside of determinism?

What is “inevitable and natural”? Again, some determinists argue that everything under the sun made of matter is bounded by what some call “the immutable laws of matter”.

We’re just stuck “here and now” in a world where even the philosophers and scientists are a long, long way from a TOE…let along a description of how “for all practical purposes” we ourselves fit into everything.

greenfuse

Of course one could look at the abortion issue, but since I do not judge abortion morally wrong, I don’t know who to respond to that issue. Why isn’t another moral issue where I do feel like what someone did was wrong - the getting hit by a stranger in the street with a hammer - a good one for the issue.

Maybe I missed that post, that example, but from my frame of mind “here and now”, any example you provide about any human interactions is no less but one more inherent component of the only reality there could ever possibly have been.

So, I’m not sure – can never be sure? – how we can ever resolve any of this other than in arguments.

And I will always respond to actual attempts to connect the dots between “in my head” and everything that anyone would have to know about the existence of existence itself in order to provide a comprehensive assessment of the human condition.