Freedom-Saturated Language

Determinists--deniers of free will, that is--apparently don't listen to themselves or read their own words. If they did they'd see that we human beings have no escape from freedom-saturated language. Think of words like should, deliberate, presume, intend, and so on ad infinitum. It is just impossible to speak or think as though determinism were true. And that says a lot. Our freedom is self-evident. You cannot demonstrate it because to demonstrate anything both presupposes and requires freedom. You confirm freedom each time you set out to disconfirm it. "Today I plan to write out my proof that we have no freedom." Nonsense! 

In contrast, we are perfectly capable of getting through a day without using God-saturated language.

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 11, 2020 at 2:30 PM

    Hi Sheldon,

    Theoretical physicist, Sabine Hossenfelder (whom I've mentioned before), posted an 11 minute youtube entry yesterday:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpU_e3jh_FY

    Transcript on her blog here:

    http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2020/10/you-dont-have-free-will-but-dont-worry.html?m=0

    Any thoughts?

    Richard G.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sheldon RichmanOctober 12, 2020 at 5:37 AM

      Thank you. I'm 25 seconds in, where she says, "I will tell you what the science says." Really? How?

      Delete
    2. Sheldon RichmanOctober 12, 2020 at 5:51 AM

      In this video she is either engaging in action, namely, reasoning, or she isn't. If she isn't, then we can ignore her. If she is, then she commits a performative contradiction. See what she says starting at 7:02 about our ability to falsify predictions of our behavior. Utter rubbish.

      Delete
    3. Sheldon RichmanOctober 12, 2020 at 5:58 AM

      Finally, she is a perfect illustration of the point of this post: even she cannot escape freedom-saturated language. Again, utter rubbish.

      Delete
    4. Sheldon RichmanOctober 12, 2020 at 7:05 AM

      One last word about Hossenfelder, a physicist: here we have a case analogous to the drunk who looks for here keys under the street lamp not because that's where she thinks she lost them but because the light is better there.

      Delete
    5. AnonymousOctober 12, 2020 at 10:41 PM

      And yet... she's a smart scientist!

      Richard G.

      Delete
    6. Sheldon RichmanOctober 13, 2020 at 4:29 AM

      I'm sure she is. It just goes to show that smart is no guarantee and scientists are prone to the same foibles as the rest of us. She is so enamored with physics apparently that everything looks like a problem of physics. Remember how problems look to the person who has only a hammer.

      Delete
    7. AnonymousOctober 13, 2020 at 8:30 PM

      Quite so.

      Richard G.

      Delete
    8. AnonymousJune 11, 2023 at 4:55 PM

      Sabine has become quite influential. She has a new video, "I don't believe in free will. This is why. ;-)

      https://youtu.be/TI5FMj5D9zU

      Richard G.

      Delete

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