tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-776205147286643847.post7845539144845436484..comments2023-12-18T13:55:50.256-08:00Comments on Thinking as a Profession: Roger Ebert, Knowing, Determinism, and RandomnessDerekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02776917750757825408noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-776205147286643847.post-63806503790289133082009-08-14T09:29:56.228-07:002009-08-14T09:29:56.228-07:00As far as reacting and initiating responses to sit...As far as reacting and initiating responses to situations in the environment, you could say the same thing about an autonomous vehicle in the DARPA Grand Challenge. The range of behavior isn't nearly as broad or deep as a human, but isn't it just a matter of degree? <br /><br />Is the difference between an autonomous vehicle and a person one of degree or kind? If the latter, what makes a person have free will and the robot not?Derekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02776917750757825408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-776205147286643847.post-83595750208973796742009-08-12T12:54:17.197-07:002009-08-12T12:54:17.197-07:00Humans are reactive and proactive to material cues...Humans are reactive and proactive to material cues, whatever size of the phenomena in question, but these do not wholly account for the range of response. To say so is to take the argument to a ridiculous (read nonsensical) extreme. Such material determinism, though secular, is as unbelievable a concept as fate.<br /><br />We do have the ability to shape our response to material conditions socially and individually. This is restricted, granted, and we can argue to what degree. But to factor it out of the equation is a gross oversimplification.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-776205147286643847.post-90953614399893261732009-08-11T15:48:51.223-07:002009-08-11T15:48:51.223-07:00Culture and psychology are just higher-level descr...Culture and psychology are just higher-level descriptions of large combinations of smaller events.<br /><br />One could just as well say that physics does not drive hurricanes (wind patterns and pressure systems have a lot to do with what drives them).<br /><br />Culture and psychology are more complex phenomena, but if they are the product of the interactions within and between physical beings, then they are still beholden to the laws of physics.Derekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02776917750757825408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-776205147286643847.post-47320295120134945022009-08-11T14:23:42.163-07:002009-08-11T14:23:42.163-07:00No; that would be silly. I am saying that physics...No; that would be silly. I am saying that physics does not drive all human events. Culture has a great deal to do with it, as does psychology (individual and mass, even evolutionary, which may be scene as deterministic in a different and more qualified way).<br /><br />Action, as a concept, can embody more than motion. And one presumes that to understand whether we are determined or not, we must consider action in the broader sense. <br /><br />Your responses are usually imbued with greater subtlety. Recommend fish for dinner tonight -- isn't that brain food? :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-776205147286643847.post-28954581274750038072009-08-11T10:18:47.959-07:002009-08-11T10:18:47.959-07:00Ever since humans and everything else were compose...Ever since humans and everything else were composed of things that obeyed the laws of physics.<br /><br />Are you implying that humans are made out of something other than biological cells? Or that humans are made out of physical matter, but that we are somehow immune to physical laws?Derekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02776917750757825408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-776205147286643847.post-65789879588896217592009-08-10T12:47:40.077-07:002009-08-10T12:47:40.077-07:00Since when did the laws of physics ever determine ...Since when did the laws of physics ever determine human events in their entirety, or even their majority? That in itself is an odd, and flawed, proposition.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com