Witten in 2003, unedited

The highly discussed free will debate is based on our folk psychological understanding of responsibility. It is a popular notion that a person who is operating without free will cannot be held responsible for their actions. Since morality is a corner stone of our society, adapting a philosophy such as determinism that removes free will is often considered unacceptable. It is for this reason, the attempt to salvage our current concepts, that libertarianism and compatiblism are pursued today.

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Written in 2003, unedited The Free Will debate usually gets broken down to the question, “is determinism compatible with free will?” The answer to this question would seem to definitively answer many questions about our free will. If they are compatible, determinism will be able to live happily along side free will, which would detour [...]

Oh Truth. I’ve used the word, you’ve used the word, but what does it mean?  We want truth to mean “the way things are.”  In this sense it’s a fine word, in that it does describe something- things probably are a way.  The trouble of course is it seems difficult, if not impossible to ever [...]

Two terms within this term.  Free and Will.  If we are free to do either of two things, it is thought that we may then invoke our will, and our will alone, to decide which path to choose.  Our will being our fancy, our inner control, that is able to make decisions based solely on [...]

In order to create a sense of structure and facilitate more posts, I, Sid the Walrus, am setting out to write a philosophical dictionary.  This dictionary will, not unlike that of Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary, cover a handful of terms and concepts that strike my fancy.  I’m going to do my best to cover a new [...]

It’s human nature to be altruistic, that is to say that we have a deep desire to do good for one another, and that evolution would seem to go against this. Evolution, one would think, would encourage self-preservation and since it seems to be the case for some people that their natural inclination is help [...]

im still intrigued by the immense attraction to the idea of altruism. eating is also a survival thing we do, as well as breathing, but those things don’t make our hearts move like altruism does. why is it so attractive? i think because there’s a spiritual/god element to it that were drawn to. I might [...]

That’s a daunting title. What does it mean? Third Person Experience, or TPE, is the phenomenon of experiencing life indirectly, which can either be caused by, or help to cause, depression. It should be noted here that as a fictional character, my ideas may not have been studied or tested by non-fictional individuals. Adapt at [...]

Sid, can I ever know anything for sure? Short answer, maybe.Here is the the issue with “no.”  The answer no would lead you to know for sure that you can never know anything for sure.  Seems it would be self defeating.Here is the problem with “yes.”  You probably can’t know anything for sure.  That is [...]

Is it not that by saying forever you’re acknowledging the contrast to never, not that they are interchangeable? Typically saying forever is an attempt to acknowledge the difference between forever and for sometime, not forever and never. For example, Janet says to Linda, “I will love you forever.” Another way to accurately express this statement [...]