Of course, from my frame of mind, Harris’s assessment above reflects two levels of understanding.
The first revolves around those things he says that can be established as in fact true objectively. Trump did say or do this, the rioters did say or do that.
The second revolves around that which can be established as in fact true objectively given all of the conflicting liberal/conservative, left/right political reactions to the event.
And then this part:
From peacegirl’s determinism thread:
So, how are the points he notes in the video not but one more inherent/necessary manifestation of “the fantasy of conscious choice”?
How were not both Trump and the rioters merely acting out whatever set into motion the laws of matter going all the way back to, well, what and when and where and how and why?
What is it about Harris’s argument regarding free will and determinism here that I keep missing?
Yo, Mo!
Let’s dig a little deeper.
"How were not both Trump and the rioters merely acting out whatever set into motion the laws of matter going all the way back to, well, what and when and where and how and why?
What is it about Harris’s argument regarding free will and determinism here that I keep missing?"
For harris, trump is an idiot because of bad luck, not because of anything he’s chosen to do or be, because there is no freewill. What part about Harris’s position is confusing you?
Here, however, everything would seem to come down to what you think that free will and determinism consist of for all practical purposes. Assuming, however, that what you think here is not the only thing that you were ever able to think.
After all, suppose what you think, feel, say and do while awake is just a configuration of what you think, feel, say and do in your dreams. Derived entirely from chemical and neurological interactions derived entirely from a brain that is wholly in sync with laws of matter.
Your brain, my brain, Harris’s brain, Trump’s brain.
If, for Harris, Trump could never have been thought to be anything other than an idiot, then both luck and the choices he made are in turn just inherent/necessary manifestations of the only possible reality.
Just as I was never able to not type these words that you were never able to not read.