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Tag Archives: mind

Generalised violence

As members of society, we usually dislike violence. Societies generally have laws that restrict or control the legal application of violence, limiting it to a certain segment of the population. Also, because we have a capacity for empathy, we may suffer when we see others suffer, in many kinds of circumstances (but not all). The […]

Posted 27 July 2011 † johan § Philosophy ‡ Comments (5) ° Also tagged: ,

Free will (2): Decision making, cause and effect

When we claim that an act was carried out as a decision made freely, we implicitly seem to say that the acting subject is fully responsible for the action at hand. In other words, if I suggest to you that you should buy blueberry ice cream and not vanilla, and you go ahead and buy […]

Posted 24 May 2011 † johan § Philosophy ‡ Comments (3) ° Also tagged: , ,

Free will

  Free will is an important idea in ethics, politics, metaphysics and philosophy of mind, since it allows for many important conclusions and principles to be derived. For instance, the fundamental reasoning of a court (at least on some level, historically) that holds somebody responsible for a crime, is that they had a choice whether […]

Posted 17 May 2011 † johan § Philosophy ‡ Comments (2) ° Also tagged: ,