One really, really interesting point RD makes is that the purpose of selfish-gene theory is to provide an explanation for unselfish behavior. He really does recognize such behavior, and that it has unselfish motivation. But it's axiomatic for him that selfishness is at the bottom of things. So he locates selfishness in the gene. Of course this is a metaphor. So I'm not sure what his real point is, except that something analogous to selfishness is going on. But what could that be? Isn't this magical thinking?
Here is a summary and comments on the essay Freedom and Resentment by PF Strawson. He makes some great points, and when he is wrong, it is in such a way as to clarify things a great deal. My non-deterministic position is much better thanks to having read this. I’ll summarize it in this post and respond in a later one. In a nutshell: PFS first argues that personal resentment that we may feel toward another for having failed to show goodwill toward us would have no problem coexisting with the conviction that determinism is true. Moral disapprobation, as an analog to resentment, is likewise capable of coexisting with deterministic convictions. In fact, it would seem nearly impossible for a normally-constituted person (i.e., a non-sociopath) to leave behind the web of moral convictions, even if that person is a determinist. In this way, by arguing that moral and determinist convictions can coexist in the same person, PFS undermines the libertarian argument ...
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