Recent content by BSilvEsq

Riddle me this Peacegirl: If the truth of Determinism means that no person is capable of doing anything other than that which they do, doesn't that me that fact is true before, during and after the activity occurs? If so, then how can a person possibly make a decision or choice between seeming...

The SEP discussion of Causal Determinism explains that Fatalism is most commonly considered to be a paradigm about gods and spirits, but that Fatalism need not involve that sort of reason for future events being fated, and that "it is true that under the assumption of determinism, one might say...

OMG It now seems that your avowed belief in Incompatiblism is, in fact, a belief in Compatibilism, your explanation of what it means to lack Free Will is a description of what it means to have Free Will, and your explanation of what it means for Determinism to be true is a rejection of the...

This responds to Peacegirl's Post No. 2024 (https://iidb.org/threads/according-to-robert-sapolsky-human-free-will-does-not-exist.27739/page-102#post-1326580), which I am not repeating here to save the page from being inundated by repetitions of large swathes of text. This has been a helpful...

First, at the conclusion of your comments above, you state: If you have read and understood my posts, you would not make that claim. Indeed, I am confident that the other posters on this thread who vehemently disagree with my posts and chide me for my writing would be among the first to tell...

This responds to Peacegirl's Post No. 1991 (https://iidb.org/threads/according-to-robert-sapolsky-human-free-will-does-not-exist.27739/page-100#post-1326318), which provides an excerpt from her father's book, which is said to present a map of the path to achieving world peace. As stated in the...

I am patient and have been patient, but the multiple quotes that do nothing more than assert that a lot of work has gone into the book, that the book reveals startling and important information, etc., without ever providing any substance reminds me of the Anne Elk's Theory of the Brontosaurus...

Great imagery

This is yet another example of a conclusory and boastful paragraph that provides little, if anything, by way of information about the substance of the thesis. Taking out the assertions of the conclusion that will be reached, how great it will be, and how obvious and certain it is once the...

I have no issue at all with the proposition that Free Will does not exist, has never existed, and will never exist. Where we come apart is on the question of how humans can volitionally do anything directed at accomplishing world peace if they lack the Free Will to do so much as make a free...

I truly appreciate the reply, and I also appreciate the prose. It is a story that hangs together. In the end, however, it is just a story that is more probably a fairy tale than an accurate explanation.

By removing the comma clauses and metaphorical introduction, I read the above quoted sentence to say that by reading the book the reader will learn that "God . . . is a mathematical reality." As open as I am not practically any possibility, including the possibility that God exists, I have an...

An open question to all posters on this thread with whom I have locked horns from time-to-time: If the answer is "No" then what is the point in continuing the discussion? For myself, I state without hesitation that it not only is conceivable to me that something might persuade me that the...

I agree 100% with everything in the post above. Well stated!

Thanks for the quick and limited reply. To respond to your one sentence quoted above, I assure you that I am not looking for loopholes or an opportunity to prove you wrong. I would be pleased to come to the view that you are correct if you are correct. I just cannot tell at this point, which...