Belief in determinism is correlated with worse outcomes, but one doesn’t cause the other; both are determined by the state and process of the universe.
Wait, how does determinism obviate cause and effect? A timeless universe would, but deterministic causation is still causation, right? Not that it matters for the point at hand.
(I’d prefer a better term than “correlated”, there’s still some logical determination going on there. Not sure what to replace it with, though.)
The point is, it doesn’t matter if we live in a deterministic universe. Our values are still best served by pursuing them with our full effort, even if from some omniscient outside perspective the whole thing were predetermined. If modeling ourselves as deterministic would diminish our efforts, we’d be making a mental mistake.
If we do live in a deterministic universe, then free choice is simply what the unfolding of the determination feels from the inside. As far as I can tell, the ontological details don’t make much empirical difference and our intuitions are well-optimized for performance. I think I’ve somehow managed to update for the possibility of a timeless universe on the intuitive level but the difference is so small it’s hard to tell. Feel free to stick with what you have, I guess.
Wait, how does determinism obviate cause and effect? A timeless universe would, but deterministic causation is still causation, right? Not that it matters for the point at hand.
(I’d prefer a better term than “correlated”, there’s still some logical determination going on there. Not sure what to replace it with, though.)
The point is, it doesn’t matter if we live in a deterministic universe. Our values are still best served by pursuing them with our full effort, even if from some omniscient outside perspective the whole thing were predetermined. If modeling ourselves as deterministic would diminish our efforts, we’d be making a mental mistake.
If we do live in a deterministic universe, then free choice is simply what the unfolding of the determination feels from the inside. As far as I can tell, the ontological details don’t make much empirical difference and our intuitions are well-optimized for performance. I think I’ve somehow managed to update for the possibility of a timeless universe on the intuitive level but the difference is so small it’s hard to tell. Feel free to stick with what you have, I guess.