alexanderpruss.blogspot.com
Alexander Pruss's Blog: The randomness argument against compatibilism
http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2011/07/randomness-argument-against.html
Sunday, July 17, 2011. The randomness argument against compatibilism. The randomness argument insists that if our actions are not determined by our character, then they are a matter of chance and hence not free. This is the most powerful argument against libertarianism. I want to think about whether the argument presents a challenge to the. As strong as her desire to inherit the money from her uncle. But when desires are sufficiently close in strength, then which desire is the stronger is "a matter o...
alexanderpruss.blogspot.com
Alexander Pruss's Blog: Limitations, art and evil
http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/limitations-art-and-evil.html
Wednesday, May 13, 2015. Limitations, art and evil. It's a standard thought that art thrives on limitations. These may be imposed by the technical capacities of the medium (I was reading this. Today) or by repressive authorities (think here of communist-era Eastern European literature), or they may be limitations imposed by the artist or her artistic community. In this regard art is like sport, where there are rules that constrain one. For we can answer some "Why did God not do it this way instead? I am ...
alexanderpruss.blogspot.com
Alexander Pruss's Blog: Preference structures had by no possible agent
http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/preference-structures-had-by-no.html
Thursday, May 14, 2015. Preference structures had by no possible agent. Say that a preference structure is a total, transitive and reflexive relation (i.e., a total preorder) on centered worlds- i.e., world-agent pairs w. Then there is a preference structure had by no possible agent. This is in fact just an easy adaptation of the proof of Cantor's Theorem. Be my own centered world @. Pruss . We now define a preference structure Q. As follows. If agent x. Then we say that c. Otherwise, we say that w.
alexanderpruss.blogspot.com
Alexander Pruss's Blog: Everettian quantum mechanics and functionalism about mind
http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/everettian-quantum-mechanics-and.html
Friday, May 1, 2015. Everettian quantum mechanics and functionalism about mind. I claim that the Everett interpretation and functionalism about mind are not both true. The argument is fairly simple. Any two worlds that are isomorphic under an isomorphism of the quantum structure (i.e., of the Hilbert spaces and the operator algebras) have the same functional properties. Now consider two worlds w. Is an exact duplicate of the temporal portion of our world from a billion years ago to the present. Then w.
alexanderpruss.blogspot.com
Alexander Pruss's Blog: Probability and normativity
http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/probability-and-normativity.html
Friday, May 8, 2015. The Born rule is a central part of quantum mechanics that tells us that the. Of a particle detector detecting a particle in a region U. Is equal to ∫. Where ψ is normalized. There are: what credences agents should assign to outcomes. The simplest version of the bridge is identity: take "probability" to mean an appropriate conditional rational credence. If that's done, then quantum mechanics is directly a normative theory: it tells us what we should believe. On other interpretations, ...
alexanderpruss.blogspot.com
Alexander Pruss's Blog: Divine Belief Simplicity
http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/divine-belief-simplicity.html
Thursday, May 7, 2015. Divine Belief Simplicity is the thesis that all of God's acts of belief are the same act of belief, the same belief token. While my belief that 2 2=4 seems distinct from my belief that the sky is blue, God's believings are all one. This is a special case of divine simplicity. Here is an argument for Divine Belief Simplicity. The primary alternative to Divine Belief Simplicity is:. Divine Belief Diversity: God's act of believing p. Is distinct from God's act of believing q. There is...
alexanderpruss.blogspot.com
Alexander Pruss's Blog: Existential commitments of First Order Logic
http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/existential-commitments-of-first-order.html
Tuesday, May 5, 2015. Existential commitments of First Order Logic. In First Order Logic (FOL), we have two oddities: (a) if " b. Is a name, then it's a theorem that b. Exists, and that (b) it's a theorem that something or other exists. We might conclude that since theorems hold necessarily, everything that exists, exists necessarily. Or we might be embarrassed and reject FOL, going for some version of free logic. Of course, if a language L. Has presuppositions, then we shouldn't expect its theorems to h...
alexanderpruss.blogspot.com
Alexander Pruss's Blog: May 2015
http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2015_05_01_archive.html
Friday, May 29, 2015. Fine-tuning and the objection from very different life-supporting worlds. I enter a room with four walls, three of them red, and the fourth white, except for a small red patch, about 1 cm. In size. I also find a dart stuck in that small red patch. (This is of course a variant of Leslie's story about the wasp and the dart.) What should I think about what happened here? I don't know. But I know that what I should. Roughly equally likely. The probability that at least one of them i...
alexanderpruss.blogspot.com
Alexander Pruss's Blog: It is more than 2.588 times as important to avoid certainty about a falsehood than to have certainty about a truth
http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2011/10/it-is-more-than-2588-times-as-important.html
Monday, October 10, 2011. It is more than 2.588 times as important to avoid certainty about a falsehood than to have certainty about a truth. William James suggests there is no right answer: different people will simply have different preferences. Here are the assumptions. Let V. Be the value of having credence r. Proposition, for 1/2≤ r. 8804;1. Let D. Be the disvalue of having credence r. Proposition, again for 1/2≤ r. 8804;1. Then the assumptions are:. 8805;1/2 to a proposition p. 8722;(1− r. For if i...
alexanderpruss.blogspot.com
Alexander Pruss's Blog: The cause of a living thing is alive
http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-cause-of-living-thing-is-alive.html
Monday, May 4, 2015. The cause of a living thing is alive. Every known cause of a living thing includes a living thing. Therefore, probably, every cause of a living thing includes a living thing. (Induction). Therefore, either there is (a) an infinite regress of living things, (b) circular causation among living things, or (c) an uncaused living thing. But (a) and (b) are false. So there is an uncaused living thing. Et hoc dicimus deum. Very interesting post. For me it raises some questions. 3 If the oth...