Core Dump : futurism, causes vs. reasons, some other stuff

[paulhope]

Lots of loose ends!

Comments

[doclabyrinth]

I find the concept of "agency" just as religious as the concept of "God," and equally vacuous.

[paulhope]

Bold words. Care to elaborate? How would you convince somebody who disagrees with you?

[doclabyrinth]

First, I would challenge him to provide a clear and concrete definition of agency. If he were to say something about "free will" or a "soul," I would laugh.

[paulhope]

Ok. But nowhere in the preceding discussion has agency been identified with either free will or a soul. I'm pretty sure that agency, when brought up, meant something like "acting on the basis of reasons that are not merely causes." The question of what kinds of causes should be considered to be reasons remains open, but we could probably build up that distinction with the help of exemplars.

So, maybe we could say that if I believe something solely because a brain tumor is hijacking some part of me, then that belief is caused, but not reasoned.

Whereas if I arrive at a conclusion after weighing the arguments in favor of and against it and ruling that the weights are ultimately for it, then I could say that that conclusion is reasoned and I have adopted it as an agent.

Or something like that.