[Philed] a more specific argument for free will

[Jackson, Patricia]

I agree with Molly free will does exist.  In the cases where certain
people will arrange to have designated drivers if they know they will be
drinking, yet others continue to take chances. I believe it is
impossible to determine the stmuli that causes the person to react in a
certain manner. People do not necessarily make decisions based on
conditioning.  

Likewise, I have been conditioned that if I eat enough snicker bars, I
will gain weight. I don't like gaiuniong weight but yet I continue
eating snickers. I choose to eat snickers.  I used to drink beer.  I
din't even like it. Didn't even like the way it made me feel but I drank
it for years because my friends drank it. One day I chose to not drink
it anymore. My friends still do. I don't. 

Patricia Jackson


-----Original Message-----
From: M Hart [mailto:mhart at mcsdga.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 8:36 AM
To: Philed
Subject: [Philed] a more specific argument for free will


Free will does exist.  How about this:  Behaviorism requires a black and
white conception of reality, in a shades of gray world.  Those shades
are the expressions of free will.

For example:
ADD is linked to TV watching in more than one or two studies.  Do your
children watch TV?  How about your students?

Extra calories, whether from fat, carbs or whatever, cause weight gain
leading to risks of heart attacks, diabetes, early death, and sometimes
social ostracization.  Do you still overindulge?  Do you allow your
children junk food?

Lack of sleep causes accidents, and so do cell phones.  Where do you
draw the line?

The point is that each risk is weighed individually, perhaps each time a
situation comes up.  There is no way for that to be quanitatively
described with enough accuracy to apply to everyone, or even enough
people to determine a moral code, as Skinner implies.

Therefore, I reject premise 1 on the grounds that it is impossible to
disern what stimuli causes the multitude of decisions a person makes,
what the perception of the reinforcements were (whether or not they are
positive reinforcements or negative).  Furthermore, behavior is
unreliable, where a person may act a certain way, but believe another
way. Behaviorism may be expressed in a laboratory setting, but in the
contexts of human existance, it is sufficiently unreliable and allows me
to come to the conclusion that free will exists; that people may make
decisions based on more than prior positive reinforcements or on a
notion of an objective reality.

Molly

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