sethoflagos

At every instant, the sun is rising in a variety of locations around the solar system. Would anything short of a vacuum decay catastrophe halt this phenomenon?

Given that my wife and I are often residing in different countries, I must declare this a moot point.

I try to steer a course through life in such a way that I never get boxed into an undesirable situation from where there is no escape. One key principle that has helped me in this over the years is to resist any urge to commit myself to a dogmatic position unless it has the firmest of foundations. I might drift through most days with the spirit of Sartre in my blood yet spend other darker days going full on Freddie Ayer. There is value to be found in both so why commit to one tribalist belief and so deny myself the benefits and personal connections I can only find with the other camp? This is not the way to maximise my options for overcoming any future challenges to my comfort and well-being. So no. I will not choose between one obscure definition of free will and another. Neither will I even commit to the existence of any abstraction of free will since the concept is so nebulous it seems to have lost any shred of meaning that I could pin a flag on. That is not to say that I am reluctant to take decisive action when necessary, but nine times out of ten I shall wait until I believe it IS necessary (much to my wife's irritation!) and then act in the surety that I have done so in the light of all relevant considerations and to the best of my judgement. I trust that clarifies precisely where I stand on this issue (and many other diversity limiting false dichotomies as it happens). In the words of the Prisoner - "I am not a number!" So yes, I do find the Compatibilist position inconsistent. But only on certain days. Others not so much.

La plus sa change, la plus c'est la meme chose. If you believe that these four statements are mutually consistent and affirm compatibility, then that's fine. We can leave it at that. It's an interesting position but not one I would care to take on board. Thanks anyway.

Genetic mutations and related changes are sporadic events. Therefore evolution cannot be a continuous process and we may have to wait some time before we suddenly observe a small step change in a population. This waiting time can be quite short for microorganisms that reproduce very quickly. In recent years we've observed evolutionary process produce new strains of COVID every few months. Evolution in larger creatures can take much longer to accrue sufficient change for an observable effect. In the last 10,000 years or so we've seen the evolution of blue eyes in some eurasian populations of humans; lactose tolerance in pastoral populations reliant on dairy produce; the appearance of the sickle cell gene in populations subject to infection with malaria. Such timescales are far beyond the lifetime of any single human; beyond the lifetime even of a civilisation; so why should we expect to see anything happening before our very eyes? However, if we can see some small change occur on the scale of 1,000 years, think how much change we could see in 1 million years! Our ancestors of 1 million years ago didn't actually look that different to how we look now. But we would see that they were different enough to consider whether or not we were all of the same species. If we could go back in time 100 million years, we'd probably see no more evolution happening in our daily lives than we do now. But the animals around us, including our ancestors, would have looked very different. And there is no need for any 'guiding hand' here. A bit of low level background radiation, and some small degree of unreliability in certain complex chemical reactions are quite sufficient to explain the all the natural diversity we see. And time is, along with the space occupied by the planet's surface simply the passive stage on which this activity plays out.

Nearly. It is not known with absolute certainty that the last common ancestor of all living tetrapods was itself a tetrapod. But either way, it would have been almost indistinguishable from some closely related lobefin fish living at the same time around 380+/-10 million years ago (mid- to late Devonian). So it had lobefins rather than legs and it not known with absolute certainty that it had a neck.

Concur without exception. Concur without exception. Exception: Hard determinism precludes free will. Self-contradiction: Compare with your statement "we do not live in an absolutely determined universe" in the first quoted section. This is the basis of your definition of 'sufficient determinism' and hence your most vital justification for the exisence of free will. The applicable degree of determinism is a vital element in understanding your use of the term. You certainly clarify that degree in your framing of 'free will'. However you appear not to in critical cases when framing 'determinism'. You seem to implicitly demand 'wiggle room' to frame free will, only to deny its existence when framing the degree of determinism require to justify a 'gospel' Compatibilist position. Cake = Have + Eat again on the face of it. The example I prepared requires no special understanding of the rules of the game beyond what a child may comprehend after a few hours exposure. In my book, that counts as an entirely sufficient book review ☺️

... but not sufficient determinism to remove the alternative actions necessary for free will to be any more than an abstract concept? This is not a compatibilist position as I understand it. I agree that without sufficient determinism, causal connection between actions and effects diminishes and with it any significance of will, free or otherwise. A wholly undetermined world (eg Khaos) is not of this universe. I also agree with you insofar as the Frankfurt Objection example does seem contrived. That is why I deliberately modified it to a close to real life scenario that occurs continually, every day in online chess communities. Perhaps it too is unworthy of your consideration, but for the moment, I don't see why that should be. Say what you will about Frankfurt; at least his position has clarity. A quality much lacking elsewhere.

Obbligato ("indispensible") springs to mind, as opposed to ad libitum (as you will). But Obbligato can also mean an alternate variation which moreorless reverses the meaning. The sense of 'thou shalt not deviate' has a whole host of forms. Just those for tempo include Source: https://www.spindrift.com/Thesaurus/thestrict.php But this is straying increasingly off topic. Apologies in advance. Pretty much my position. Consequently I find myself atheist to any form of absolute determinism and no more than agnostic regarding any form of absolute free will. Arguably every situation is bit of both with a healthy dose of absurdity thrown in for good measure. Post script: Arguably Alice could be 100% free 100% of the time. I see no absolute constraint here.

Alice did a bad thing => Alice had no choice, but it is what she was inclined to do even if alternate courses of action were available to her ("compatibilist" ?) I did a bad thing => I had several choices but simply miscalculated due to some freak quantum event. Possibly. ("A plague on both your houses") Only you can define your own terminology. And that doesn't even begin to address transferability across different languages. Is the 'true' German translation of 'force' die Macht or die Kraft for example. In some contexts they may be interchangeable, in others not. The 1st movement of Hindemith's trumpet concerto is marked to be played 'Mit Kraft'. There have been many arguments on English speaking trumpet forums over the years as to what this actually means. For 'reasons' I interpret it as 'like a machine' based on context rather than linguistics. Others differ. I don't dispute their interpretation but won't accept them declaring mine invalid without a bit of a scrap. Concensus meanings are only valid if arrived at by concensus. Clarity can be very elusive.

See etymology To be fair, the word only began to lose its more absolute sense in the 19th century. Its use in philosophical and law literature predates that by some margin, so it isn't the philosophers who altered the meaning, it's us. Compare with our use of 'calculus'. Not much to do with pebble counting in the regular use found on this site.

Got to distinguish between possible differences in everyday use and the meaning of 'coercion' in philosophical literature. The latter seems to me to be more absolute. Less absolute contexts would be seen more as 'influence' or some such.

Just to be clear, is this latter statement founded on Frankfurt's objection to the Principle of Alternate Possibilities (PAP) or some further thinking? As an avid if mediocre chess player, the following version engages me: Alice and Bob are two opposing, reasonably competent chess players. Each is supplied with one of two chess computers (Holly and Hal?) allocated by a single quantum coin flip to refer to if they wish. Each unit outputs what it computes as the strongest next three move sequence but the depth of analysis is limited, sufficient to give advantage in short range tactical play but no better than either player in long term strategy. Critically, the depth horizons are different, though the players are unaware of who's is best at the start of play. Neither can see the other's computer output. The game progresses until Alice has high hopes of winning if Bob makes a certain attractive but blundering move at his next turn. However, she notices that her computer evaluation has suddenly nose-dived. Even with her best move, Bob has a different move available that will reward him with a winning position. However, she's noticed that Bob is in the habit of inadvertently staring at the piece he intends to move next. a)If Bob is looking at the piece she wants him to move should Alice: a1) proceed with Holly's recommended move and hope Hal is too weak to alert Bob to her weakness? a2) play a different move that further encourages the desired response albeit compromising her winning opportunity? b) If Bob is looking at the other piece should should she: b1) still proceed with Holly's recommended move hoping she is the one that's miscalculated? b2) find a 'confounding complication' that diverts the attention of Bob (and Hal) back to the desired option? This scenario includes Frankfurt's assertion that Alice's attempted coercion in b2) does not absolve Bob of moral responsibility for the poor move he intended to make in case a) anyway. However, the quantum selected Holly provides Bob with a fundamentally indeterministic option (Holly's computation is purely deterministic but her selection is non-causal to my eyes at least) and this removes one horn of the 'two-horned dilemma' raised by Fischer et al.: the link between Bob's inclination and action is not wholly deterministic therefore Frankfurt cannot be begging the question here. But if the link between Bob's inclination (the decision he would take in the absence of Hal) and the action he finally takes is indeterminate, doesn't that put the nail in the coffin for causal determinism? Alice's actions share this indeterminant element but excepting a1) have her selecting moves she may strongly suspect of being sub-optimal. Interesting from a chessy point of view at least.

You don't say whether or not your rear end is moving likewise. Either way, my money would go on dot items 3 & 5 working in tandem. Gravity provides the driving force for pulse-induced creep. Every heartbeat lifts and lowers you ever so slightly allowing gravity to slowly inch (millimetre?) you down the gravity well. It's an unsupported hypothesis, but I'd be willing to accept a reasonable research grant if you'd like more flesh on the bones.

This is the York Marygate I remember from the early '60s. I'm not sure top left actually is Walker Street (during 'slum' clearance), as they were all very similar. I We were right by the river and I do remember being flooded out a couple of times. A bit of an inconvenience, but the area had more character than you can easily find these days.

Yes, but his 'incoming' was 10oC so 600W is more than enough for him for that room. I guess we're both old enough to remember unheated bedrooms with ice on the inside of the windows. Mine became a town centre car park in the 70's.

The OP room is ~ 40 m3 air space - typical of say a medium sized British bedroom. British bedrooms are typically not ventllated as much as they might be, especially at this time of year, but for the sake of argument let's give it the full 7 volume changes per hour: 280 m3/hr. Air density is oto 1.2 kg/m3 for a mass flow of 336 kg/hr or 0.933 kg/s. Air specific heat is 1,005 J/kgK for an energy flow of 93.8 W/K. Therefore 600W dry heat input gives a room temperature of ~600/93.8 or 6.4 degrees above that of the incoming air. Since the incoming air is likely to be preheated air from elsewhere in the house, I suspect the room will be noticeably warm by most people's standards. Add to that the 80W or so contribution from @StringJunky's metabolism and taking the reasonable assumption that the room is not fully aired continuously, then things might be getting a bit toasty, don't you think? We're certainly well above his 15o C upper threshold of comfort. No You referred to in belittling my initial post are typically not references. They are predominantly unreliable as you implied in your original post. You are once again being deliberately disingenuous in your argument. This is not worthy of a figure of your standing in this community.

Find I have nothing I can usefully add now. Thanks for the reps anyway.

Good luck in getting one 😉

Strawman. I said no such thing. Far from the first time you've responded in this way to my posts. Just saying.

With respect, when I use the phrase 'standard target' I mean the middle of a range specified by the internationally recognised industrial design standards relating to a broad range of HVAC applications that I've been contractually bound to observe in the course of my professional working career. I do NOT mean 'the first bit of bs I found via google'. These standards are in general not available outside of a paywall, so what source exactly would you wish me to quote? (My employers generally take my CV as sufficient authority. Would you prefer me to attach that? 🤨) Electronic gear etc is not 'people'. Similarly, I've worked with slightly different ranges for long term paper products storage etc. The OP case is the OP case. @StringJunky is not likely to swell and crinkle when the air gets a little damp I trust.

Define 'comfort' Okay, that's an unusally low temperature. Recommended humidity for occupied rooms is 40%-60% RH because reasons. Air @ 10oC and 100% RH contains 9.4 g/m3 moisture (calculator here) Air @ 15oC containing 9.4 g/m3 moisture is @ 73.3% RH (same resource) If its a contractual obligation job, then dehumidification seems obligatory. However, there are other considerations to bear in mind. Maybe 73% RH is tolerable to you in which case, a modest addition of dry heat would do the job. Same if the initial humidity was more like 85% If the room is humid only because of your breathing/perspiration and it's less humid outside then maybe all that's needed is a small fan to increase the ventilation rate a bit. Most typical occupied spaces are best served with ~7 air changes per hour or they can get a bit clammy. (Up to double that figure for say a computer room) People are walking humidifiers emitting 6-7 MJ/day largely as moisture saturated warm air so there's major shifts in emphasis when dealing with small, busy rooms versus large sparsely occupied ones. Guess it's down to the individual. Personally, I find 50% a bit on the dry side these days, but it is the standard target for the HVAC industry etc (eg industry source) 600W of dry heat input would make a room this size quite warm quite quickly. I checked the site and it does indeed say that. Absolute nonsense. These values are what would be required to prevent condensation on say the inside of a single-glazed window. Following this guidance would be a health hazard for any occupants.

What is the frequency of purple? Purple (and all other hues) are purely constructs of the mind, and exist in the external environment only as approximate correlations with certain bands of emr. The many records of inviduals with chromaesthesia who experience colour from sonic stimuli further strengthen this point of view.

A priori (deduced) determinism demands no empirical evidence and is compatible only with faith based points of view. A posteriori (induced) determinism takes on board the empirical evidence. So it could be either. There are many different flavours of determinism.

What if your neurologist was so competent that he became a Laplace's Demon and provided you with a scheduled listing of all your actions for the next 24 hours? Wouldn't a compatibilist's belief in determinism conflict with his freedom to deviate from the Demon's prediction only to fall foul of some time reversed Grandfather paradox? Even if you claim that predictability has nothing to do with free will it appears from the above that compatibilism requires the future to be unknowable for free will to remain meaningful. The macroscopic diversity and non-linearity I mentioned were intended to suggest that there may be profound reasons why that future is indeed unknowable; we do not and never will know exactly the point where lightning will next strike, and that seems a necessary condition for the very existence of free will. They give free will 'elbow room'. When you talk about the predictability of your behaviour are you not not really just talking about trust? The habitual repetitive patterns of behaviour that you have developed over a lifetime in defiance of random external stimuli? Those patterns that a wife may find reliably secure and comforting, in contrast to an archetype impulsive free spirit like Peter Pan? How would we ever know that a Peter Pan had any free will at all? It surely takes an effort of free will curb one's impulses and train oneself to be a person a life partner could trust. This seems to be Spinoza's vision of free will While initial urge may arguably be deterministic, the development and regular practice of 'good habits' further distances action from external influences. Having made elbow room for some definition of free will: As a philosophical construct that definition of free will must be an idealised perfect form. One issue I might raise here is that evolution doesn't habitually create perfect forms. It strongly prefers 'sufficient' forms. Given a choice of multiple alternative means to an end, it invariably seems to go the recurrent laryngeal nerve route. However, evolutionarily desirable free will may be to the survival of a species, I suspect that the most economic structure to build from readily available materials would be some merely sufficient simulation. Your decision to engage in a sensible diet was a result of logical deduction. Logic transcends the boundaries of the universe and is therefore an uncaused cause.