Autism dx = A Revolution in Our Ideas about Free Will

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I believe that the Autism dx is liberating for many because it casts doubt on, cracks open, the dominant western belief in people's behaviour being "blameworthy" or "praiseworthy". The AS/Autism dx is like the thin end of a wedge which in its entirety says "I have NFW; I am 100% GED" ( NFW for "No Free Will" and 100% GED for "100% Genetically and Environmentally Determined" ).

I think that a lot of the power, and appeal, of the Spectrum labels/diagnoses is in the "determinism" they express. They "provide" scientific support for/recognition of our being, in profound, lifelong and wide-ranging ways, ( not just violent, destructive, or temporarily as with some other dx's ) determined by our genes and environment.

I wonder whether describing oneself as being GED, or having NFW, could, while not having medical backing, have the same effect, if expressed like a dx.

The idea that our "I" is nothing but the flapping of the door between inner and outer environments is actually zen buddhist, and ( full ) understanding that everything is buddha/the universe, that we are one with it, nothing independent about us at all, is considered the highest state to reach before enlightenment.

As Derk Pereboom says in his book "Living Without Free Will", our best science is already telling us this ( "we have NFW" ). Medical approaches are always 12-17 years behind scientific progress.

I want this to be as much a discussion about the power of labels like AS/Autism as about free will; how for the first time science is handing out labels which recognise not only that violence or short term "aberrations" are determined, ( and put people in hospitals rather than prisons because of it ), but that whole swathes of behaviour, neutral and positive, are too.

I may be wrong, but I don't think that there is any other medical diagnosis which combines determinism of the person to such an extent with so many inoffensive, non-violent, non-"ill" behaviours. The autism spectrum dx is unique, and revolutionary.
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Last edited by ouinon on 07 Dec 2009, 3:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Did anyone else find the autism/aspergers dx a revelation because of how it removed, or at least significantly eroded, their belief in socially accepted ideas of our being blameworthy or praiseworthy for our behaviour/actions?

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For me....it was more of a reinforcement rather than a revelation.

The dx itself didn't really serve as reinforcement either, it just solved (SOMEWHAT...my brain still seems as mysterious as ever though) the neuropsychological mystery I was living with for 28 years.


My own despised cognitive and behavioural issues which I can do nothing (at least not anything involving "free will") to change serve as the reinforcement.... not the dx itself.


It's one thing for a religious/spiritual person to believe in free will, but i'll never understand why so many materialists do as well.


I mean what EXACTLY is underwriting that ghost in the machine for materialists?


Reason?


Well.....I guess the individual's particular mode of reasoning has no biological/environmental basis



Most people express great hatred for people like Ted Bundy and Adolph Hitler, I myself do and humans being the emotionally-driven creatures they are...it's perfectly understandable.

However... it is NOT perfectly rational considering what we know about free will (absolutely nothing) and what we know (quite a bit in 2009) about the biological/environmental factors that likely determine ALL human behaviour.

It's easy for those who believe in free will to claim determinism is just an excuse for every anti-social or otherwise *negative* behaviour under the sun. I often encounter this strawman argument myself when i'm debating free will-ers. Such an "argument" obviously does nothing to empirically (or even logically for that matter) demonstrate the existence of free will. I could just as easily say that the concept of free will finds no dwelling more commodious than the human ego. It is a convenient and socially acceptable justification for feeling superior to others. While that again would do nothing to advance my own case for determinism, at least my argument seems to have the better part of the modern scientific community (excluding theistic/spiritual scientists who at least have some comparatively LOGICAL reasons to believe in free will even if the empirical evidence to support the existence of god/spirit is insufficient) on it's side