peacegirl wrote: ↑Thu Jan 31, 2019 10:04 pm
That's what this discovery is about. It can't be explained in a few words. Why don't you read the first three chapters? Then you'll understand what I'm talking about.
Most people will behave the way they always have unless there is a change in the environment. Punishment and blame are aspects of our present environment, but as I said, there is a better way. This discovery brings about a huge paradigm shift.
Fairly obvious why I won't. Anyway I did glimpse into the book, I'll comment on just this one below since you won't give a summary.
Once it is discovered through mathematical reasoning that man’s will is definitely not free, then it becomes impossible to blame an individual for what he is compelled to do; consequently, it is imperative that we discover a way to prevent his desire to do the very things for which blame and punishment were previously necessary, as the lesser of two evils.
So much nonsense. I know very well that technically there is no free will (and that technically there are no individuals either), and yet in the everyday life I can still blame and punish individuals all the same. Not really impossible.
There is this classical dumb mistake of taking some very deep or abstract or whatever understanding and mixing it into the everyday life. Yes technically it's true but so what, doesn't affect most people.
And we can go further, there is no free will, there is no individual, there is no blaming, there is no non-blaming either, we could just as well say that we should blame absolutely everyone for everything. Talking about the ethical consequences of determinism is just babble.
And oh wow you came up with the idea that we should prevent malignant desire, like a billion other people haven't already thought of that one.
By the way to change our ways, we would need free will right? Even then it wouldn't work since a lot of "evil" isn't caused by desire, and most "evil" caused by desire isn't seen as evil by the ones causing them. Nor would they want to change, and many of them can't change even if they want to. Etc.
Anyone who thinks that there is a simple solution to the human condition, doesn't understand the human condition very much (or determinism).