Show 296: Personal Responsibility and Society w/ Dr. Les Garwood

Personal Responsibility and Society w/ Dr. Les Garwood

Audio here!

In addition to having a deep distrust of government, those who oppose health care being extended to the uninsured will often express utter disgust for people who they see as “refusing” to take responsibility for themselves. Welfare to them is not about caring for the citizenry of the country, but the way the State babies and pampers to the “lazy” and “irresponsible.” Indeed, “personal responsibility” seems to be at the foundation of American Conservatism and R-Libertarianism, both often tied to an almost pathological “rugged individualism.”

But “personal responsibility” is a term widely used, but not often really understood…even by those few who agree with the idea that our behaviors are completely determined…who seem to embrace traditional ideas of “holding people responsible” and “keeping people in line” with punishment and rewards.Dr. Les Garwood is one of the few practicing psychiatrists who understands that our behavior is fully naturalistic; that is, based in a cause and effect understanding of our world.  Dr. Garwood is the founder of one of the oldest Yahoo groups on determinism, and this Sunday, he will speak with Arnell Dowret about the need to reconsider how we think about personal responsibility and human nature. He will also speculate with us why it is that several prominent self-identifying determinists advocate for punishments and rewards in shaping human behavior, and while accepting that we are fully determined beings, argue this doesn’t really have to change very much about modern society.

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