Strange characteristics of determinism

[LOVEthroughINTELLECT]

Determinism says that everything is an effect of an antecedent cause. At some point people became conscious of determinism. Therefore, if determinism is true then that means that our knowledge of our thoughts and actions being the effects of causes is an effect of a cause.

Even stranger, if determinism is true and if at some point nobody was conscious of determinism and everybody believed that they have free will, then that means that the action of believing that our actions are not necessarily the effects of antecedent causes is the effect of an antecedent cause.

Strange.

 

[Paradoxum]

Yes

 

[Lord Emsworth]

Well, I would have to nitpick one thing. Change:
"that everything is an effect of an antecedent cause"
to:
"that everything is an effect of antecedent causes"


(Plus, I think you could have an uncaused head of a causal chain, and could still call it determinism.)

 

[Received]

Dunno if this is apropos, but there was an interesting quantitative study I ran across a few years ago saying that, basically, NOT believing in free will makes people more prone to cheating. Another study: not believing in free will "makes the brain less free," but I forget the content of that study.

ETA: here's the second study.

 

[Autumnleaf]

Its like the Observer Effect.

Observer effect (physics) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia