On Sat, Sep 5, 2009 at 1:04 AM, Brent Meeker<meekerdb.domain.name.hidden> wrote:
>> But again, Dennett is mainly interested in pushing his "Bright"
>> agenda...showing that Atheists are just like everybody else.
>
> Seems like you're mainly interested in picking a fight with Dennett. I
> don't recall him mentioning either "Brights" or atheists in either
> "Elbow Room" or "Freedom Evolves", his two books on compatibilist free will.
Probably you should check out "Breaking The Spell", which I haven't
read either, but I've seen him give interviews on it.
I don't have any problem with Dennett per se...probably he's a fine
person. He makes cider, and is a sculptor, and likes to sail. All
sounds good.
And I don't know what his views on all the various social issues are,
like crime or immigration or universal healthcare, so I can't oppose
him on any of those grounds...for all I know we agree on everything.
AND he may even be right...if you convert everyone to atheism, then
they may be more inclined to think rationally about things, and
everything will improve as a result. Including my pet issues.
BUT...to me it looks like he's going about it the wrong way. His
views on free will look like unhelpful word games. Determinism is
determinism and there's no way to make it compatible with the
traditional meaning of free will. If you have an alternate definition
of "all the free will that's worth having", then we should come up
with a new term for that. "Bright-will" maybe.
And his views on qualia don't raise my opinion of him much either.
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Received on Sat Sep 05 2009 - 01:30:08 PDT