Copy of comment from crosspost:
Society is already deterministic (or at least not controlled by us, you can argue for quantum randomness). People still behave like they have free will.
this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2023
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to challenge free will is to challenge the idea of the self. if the universe is mechanistic, and you within it are equally mechanistic, then you can’t point at your mechanism and say “i stand apart from the world.” you are literally but a part of the larger whole.
morality could be compatible with determinism. the most compatible moral frameworks seems to be a type of universalism, which on the surface resembles altruism. there’s nothing special about ‘you’, so you’d never trade someone else’s well-being to make your own better (it’s a nonsensical exchange, like building a house and then selling it to yourself). when confronting determinism, why do people gravitate toward defeatism instead of this more optimistic conclusion?