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    42
    Freedom of choice distinguishes humans from animals — Carmelics
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    Freedom of choice distinguishes humans from animals

    Free Will & ForeknowledgePersonal Identity
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Animals are mechanisms programmed to a fixed pattern of behavior
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    • 2.Human beings are not tied to any particular mode of life and can reject the promptings of instinct
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Hard determinists from Spinoza to contemporary neuroscientists like Benjamin Libet argue that human deliberation is itself causally determined by prior neural and environmental states.
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    • 2.If human 'choice' is merely a phenomenological illusion produced by complex deterministic mechanisms, then the difference between humans and animals is one of computational complexity, not a categorical freedom.
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    • 3.Rousseau's argument presupposes libertarian free will without establishing the metaphysical grounds that would distinguish genuine self-determination from sophisticated stimulus-response processing.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Empirical ethology demonstrates that many non-human animals exhibit behavioral flexibility, tool use, and learned cultural variation that transcends fixed instinctual programming.
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    • 2.If freedom of choice is operationalized as the capacity to override instinct and adapt behavior through learning, then the purported distinguishing criterion applies to numerous animal species.
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    Topics

    Personal IdentityFree Will & Foreknowledge

    Connections

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    Consciousness & Mind1 linked

    Related

    Animals are mechanisms programmed to a fixed pattern of behaviorEmpirical ethology demonstrates that many non-human animals exhibit behavioral f...Hard determinists from Spinoza to contemporary neuroscientists like Benjamin Lib...Human beings are not tied to any particular mode of life and can reject the prom...
    +3 moreShow less
    If freedom of choice is operationalized as the capacity to override instinct and...If human 'choice' is merely a phenomenological illusion produced by complex dete...Rousseau's argument presupposes libertarian free will without establishing the m...

    Similar

    Mature humans make choices after deliberating about different availabl...79%Freedom of choice makes truly moral action possible75%Freedom entails the necessity of choice.75%The boundaries between human and animal, and between animal and machin...74%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: rousseau
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    What then of Rousseau’s key claim that freedom and authority are reconciled in his ideal republic through obedience to the general will? This claim finds notorious and deliberately paradoxical expression in Book 1 chapter 7 of The Social Contract, where Rousseau writes of citizens being “forced to be free” when they are constrained to obey the general will. The opening words of The Social Contract themselves refer to freedom, with the famous saying that “Man is born free, but is everywhere in ch
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit