[Avodah] Free Will vs. Physics

[Zev Sero]

Ben Waxman wrote:
> But what you are describing is something that is for all practical 
> purposes, meaningless.

For *practical* purposes the baby himself is meaningless too.


> When the person learns how to use the TV control, 
> then said control can be meaningful in his life. Until then it is one 
> more useless hunk of circuits. So a baby's free will, assuming that he 
> really has it, is also useless to him.

Of course it's useless to him at that stage; but that wasn't the
question.  The question was about the contrast between free will and
physics, i.e. the deterministic or indeterministic processes that
govern inanimate objects, and it was contended that a baby is in this
sense just like an object; that's what I objected to.  A baby's
decisions may be no more useful or meaningful than an object's
mechanical reactions, but I contend that their nature is completely
different -- that he is born with free will, and only needs to learn
how to use it.


-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas