Re: The Road with no Branches argument

From: Ryan Tanaka (yidijm_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 10/22/04 

Date: 22 Oct 2004 10:13:20 -0700

"Immortalist" <Reanimater_2000@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<1pSdnbZKSsaBP-XcRVn-3Q@comcast.com>...

I remember reading somewhere an interesting observation on how people
conduct themselves in day to day lives. It went sort of something
like this:

Say if we see three people, and they see a sidewalk in which they can
walk on.

The follower will conciously walk on the path that's layed out for
them.

The reactionary will make it a point to stray from the path on
purpose.

The independent thinker will be too distracted by the things around
them that they're not even aware that the path exists.

Ryan 

-- 
http://www.ryangtanaka.com
> Whenever we make a choice we are doing (or think we are doing) something like
> what a traveler does when faced with a choice between different roads. The only
> roads the traveler is able to choose are roads which are a continuation of the
> road he is already on. By analogy, the only choices we are able to make are
> choices which are a continuation of the actual past and consistent with the laws
> of nature. If determinism is false, then making choices really is like this: one
> ?road? (the past) behind us, two or more different ?roads? (future actions
> consistent with the laws) in front of us. But if determinism is true, then our
> journey through life is like traveling (in one direction only) on a road which
> has no branches. There are other roads, leading to other destinations; if we
> could get to one of these other roads, we could reach a different destination.
> But we can't get to any of these other roads from the road we are actually on. So
> if determinism is true, our actual future is our only possible future; we can
> never choose or do anything other than what we actually do.
> 
> This is a powerful intuition pump, since it's natural to think of our future as
> being ?open? in the branching way suggested by the road analogy and to associate
> this kind of branching structure with freedom of choice. But several crucial
> assumptions have been smuggled into this picture: assumptions about time and
> causation and assumptions about possibility. The assumptions about time and
> causation needed to make the analogy work seem to include the following: that we
> ?move? through time in something like the way that we move down a road, that our
> ?movement? is necessarily in one direction only, from past to future, that the
> past is necessarily ?fixed? or beyond our control in some way that the future is
> not. These assumptions are all controversial; on some theories of time and
> causation (the 4D theory of time, a theory of causation that permits time travel
> and backwards causation), they are all false (Lewis 1976, Horwich 1987, Sider
> 2001).
> 
> The assumption about possibility is that possible worlds are concrete
> spatiotemporal things (in the way that roads are) and that worlds can overlap
> (literally share a common part) in the way that roads can overlap. But most
> possible worlds theorists reject both assumptions and nearly everyone rejects the
> second assumption (Adams 1974, Lewis 1986).
> 
> Determinism (without these additional assumptions) does not imply that our
> ?journey? through life is like moving down a road; the contrast between
> determinism and non-determinism is not the contrast between traveling on a
> branching road and traveling on a road with no branches.
> 
> If this intuition pump nevertheless continues to engage us, it is because we
> think that our range of possible choices is constrained by two factors: the laws
> and the past. We can't change or break the laws; we cannot causally affect the
> past. (Even if backwards causation is logically possible, it is not within our
> power.) These two premises are the basis of the best known contemporary argument
> for incompatibilism: the Consequence argument. More of this later.
> 
> http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/incompatibilism-arguments/
> http://www.campusprogram.com/reference/en/wikipedia/e/el/elbow_room.html
> http://actiontheory.free.fr/Actionpuzzles.htm

Relevant Pages

  • The Road with no Branches argument
    ... what a traveler does when faced with a choice between different roads. ... journey through life is like traveling on a road which ... this kind of branching structure with freedom of choice. ... causation and assumptions about possibility. ...
    (sci.logic)
  • Re: The Road with no Branches argument
    ... > what a traveler does when faced with a choice between different roads. ... If determinism is false, then making choices really is like ... > consistent with the laws) in front of us. ... > journey through life is like traveling on a road ...
    (sci.logic)
  • Re: So Many Road to Travel
    ... the traveling of many ... >>>different roads require the wearing of many ... >>>different hats so.. ... Mother Machree ...
    (soc.culture.irish)