Re: Snape's Vow (was: Half Blood Prince Major Letdown)

David Sueme <dsueme@xxxxxxxxxxx>

The free will position simply maintains that the
ndividual is a cause, not an effect.

But even a cause has a cause, unless of course it is random. If you
asked the person he would say he had a reason, a cause, for acting the
way he did; if he could not, if he could not explain why he did what
he did he would certainly feel rather embarrassed .

Suppose you were tied to a post and I had a
Louisville Slugger baseball bat. How many
blows to you knees, in defiance of your screamed,
then moaned, then gasped entreaties, would it take
to convince you that I indeed had a will?

I don't think the knees would do it but if you hit me hard enough in
the head with a baseball bat I might suffer enough brain damage to
start thinking what you said made sense.

That I was indeed an causal agent, and not simply
an example of determinism?

So lets see, you claim that if you had a sufficiently powerful cause at
your command (like the ability to torture me) then you could effect my
opinion about free will until it was more in line with yours. Probably
true, but do you really think that strengthens your position that human
beings are independent of cause and effect? I don't.

Eggplant

.

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