Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett are determinists who agree that our thoughts and acts are completely determined by prior states of the universe and the laws of nature. But Harris is a hard determinist who thinks free will is simply an illusion while Dennett is a compatibilist who thinks we do have free will even though we are determined. In a review of Harris’ Free Will, Dennett says the book is veritable museum of mistakes. Harris replies with a lament that Dennett’s review is “a strange document—avuncular in places, but more generally sneering” and is itself a collection of distortions and mistakes. The review and reply are both lengthy, but a fairly quick look will give the student an idea of the differences between hard determinism and compatibilism.
Month: February 2014
Is there evidence God does not exist?
Is atheism irrational? Alvina Plantinga says there is insufficient evidence for atheism.
Aid in dying
Aid in dying v. assisted suicide. Is this the difference between killing and letting die? “In a Gallup Poll conducted in May, for example, 70 percent of respondents agreed that when patients and their families wanted it, doctors should be allowed to ‘end the patient’s life by some painless means.’ Yet in the same 2013 poll, only 51 percent supported allowing doctors to help a dying patient ‘commit suicide.’”
The dangers of certainty
A lesson from Auschwitz. “We always have to acknowledge that we might be mistaken. When we forget that, then we forget ourselves and the worst can happen.”
Can ancient philosophy help people lead better lives?
Five books on ancient philosophy and modern life. Jules Evans “explores philosophy lessons of the ancients relevant to our globalised, information age – by way of cognitive behavioural therapy, and government measures of happiness.”
It it the brain that makes humans unique?
What makes you so special? The brain probably has something to do with it. But what exactly? “If it seems like scientists trying to find the basis of human uniqueness in the brain are looking for a neural needle in a haystack, it’s because they are. Whatever makes us different is built on the bedrock of a billion years of common ancestry. Humans will never abandon the quest to prove that they are special. But nor can we escape the fact that our minds are a modest tweak on an ancient plan that originated millions of years before we came onto the scene.”
Was it immoral to watch the Super Bowl?
Are football fans complicit in the brain damage and other injuries players suffer? Steve Almond worries that he and other fans are: “[M]edical research has confirmed that football can cause catastrophic brain injury — not as a rare and unintended consequence, but as a routine byproduct of how the game is played. That puts us fans in a morally queasy position. We not only tolerate this brutality. We sponsor it, just by watching at home. We’re the reason the N.F.L. will earn $5 billion in television revenue alone next year, three times as much as its runner-up, Major League Baseball.”
Thinking about law school? Be prepared for some philosophy!
Why has philosophy been central to legal education for more than a century? Brian Leiter explains “it has partly to do with the nature of philosophy as a discipline and partly to do with the deep affinities between law and philosophy.”
Teaching children about God
Is it wrong to teach children about God? “[Parents who believe in God] teach their children to believe in God, atheists teach them not to. Who is doing the right thing?” Michael Ruse, the director of history and philosophy of science at Florida State University, searches for an answer.
Socratically Speaking 