Spot the mistake
From the back cover of Louis P. Pojman's "Theories of Human Nature":
"Pojman concludes with a discussion of the question of free will, ultimately asserting that each of us must decide for ourselves who and what we are, and, based on that answer, how we shall live."
Because we're free, I get to decide who I am, and what kind of thing I am? OK, I'm the King of France. And I'm a lizard. But since that makes me a sort of super-lizard, and I'm also a man, that means I'm Superman. And, based on that, I've decided I shall live like Superman.
"Pojman concludes with a discussion of the question of free will, ultimately asserting that each of us must decide for ourselves who and what we are, and, based on that answer, how we shall live."
Because we're free, I get to decide who I am, and what kind of thing I am? OK, I'm the King of France. And I'm a lizard. But since that makes me a sort of super-lizard, and I'm also a man, that means I'm Superman. And, based on that, I've decided I shall live like Superman.
posted by Charles P. Everitt at 12:39 PM
6 Comments:
The sad thing is, I think most people, if they read Pojman's conclusion, and his argument for it, would welcome it. They'd think something like: 'Oh, isn't that nice.'
I hate most people.
What justifies the transition from your being a super-lizard and also being a man to being superman?
By any standards of normal reasoning, you're right: it doesn't follow from being a super-lizard and a man that one is a superman. It would be like thinking that because one is a big mouse and a elephant that one is a big elephant. But I was intentionally trying to be absurd. And I could just extend the absurdity of Pojman's reasoning to your question and say that my free will implies that if I think I'm a super-lizard and I think I'm a man, then I can decide to think I'm Superman. Why, because I decide to think that follows for me.
Good point, though. I was a little unhappy with my instance of absurd reasoning. There should be a kind of coherence to the absurdity.
Coherence in absurdity.
Erin: What'd you do today, Sarah?
Sarah: Went fishing.
Erin: Where?
Sarah: My bathtub.
Erin: Oh... Catch anything?
Sarah: No, of course not! It's a bathtub.
what do you get when you cross a chopper, an elephant and a rhino?
heliphino.
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