Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Responsibility and Free Will
Jason brought up a good point in one of his comments to my thread on free will. That is,
Why is that? Why do I bother breast-feeding my baby (evolutionary arguements welcome)? Why don't I tear pages out of library books? I think I have a certain "love" for humanity that compels me to not shit in my neighbor's yard (unless it's an emergency). It's certainly within my ability to do a lot of things that might be in my self-interest that I don't do. Is this a limit to my free will? Then again, why is there a padlock on the cords of this public computer? Why would someone steal something when it has been offered for public use? Hmm... I can see this getting into moral relativism. That would be fun.
For the record, I don't have a baby or a milk-producing breast.
Now i pretty sure that i'm the only one in the group with children but the issue of children means that there are people depending on me. and if i mess up then other people will be paying for my mistakes.If I were someone who felt strongly about the metaphysical side of things (wink wink, nudge nudge), I would say that Jason has pointed out that humans do seem to have something which seems like "social responsibility". That is, my actions affect other people in a certain way and that matters to me.
Why is that? Why do I bother breast-feeding my baby (evolutionary arguements welcome)? Why don't I tear pages out of library books? I think I have a certain "love" for humanity that compels me to not shit in my neighbor's yard (unless it's an emergency). It's certainly within my ability to do a lot of things that might be in my self-interest that I don't do. Is this a limit to my free will? Then again, why is there a padlock on the cords of this public computer? Why would someone steal something when it has been offered for public use? Hmm... I can see this getting into moral relativism. That would be fun.
For the record, I don't have a baby or a milk-producing breast.
