Ah Causal Determinism, the ultimate moral excuse for anything and everything.
Also sorry for the long hiatus! This whole teaching full time and trying to publish stuff so I can (hopefully, eventually) land a tenure-track job somewhere is really time consuming. I’m going to try to start updating here more regularly again. But if I fail to do so then you can’t really blame me, it was physically impossible for me to do otherwise!
If only stabbing someone rude were a socially appropriate action…
Wait, you mean it’s not? Uh oh. I owe some people some apologies.
Ha! Excellent reductio of incompatibilism. Well played sir.
Thanks!
It’s a reductio of either incompatibilsm or of determinism, right?
Yeah, I suppose there are some (e.g. Kant) who argue along those lines – that our common sense belief in control/responsibility/morality/etc is evidence that the universe is not governed by deterministic laws. Personally I’m pretty skeptical (to say the least) of the idea that our social practices, or understanding of morality, or sense of control or responsibility etc., could tell us anything at all one way or another about the truth or falsity of a metaphysical claim like causal determinism.