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From: kort@hounx.UUCP (B.KORT)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.singles
Subject: Re: Beach harassment
Message-ID: <562@hounx.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Feb-86 07:23:36 EST
Article-I.D.: hounx.562
Posted: Mon Feb  3 07:23:36 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 5-Feb-86 01:30:00 EST
References: <8342@ucla-cs.ARPA> <2581@sdcrdcf.UUCP> <255@birtch.UUCP> <1167@homxb.UUCP> <118@ttidcc.UUCP> <188@bRe: Beach harassment
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
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Xref: watmath net.women:8688 net.singles:10112

The debate focuses on the male reaction to a female sunning herself
on the beach.  Daniel Dennett, in his book, _Elbow Room: The Varieties
of Free Will Worth Wanting_, comments as follows:

		According to our traditional understanding of
	responsibility, we are primarily or directly responsible
	for our "voluntary" actions, the things we *do*, and (at
	most) only indirectly responsible for the things that
	happen to us.  It is held, for instance, that "I can't
	help" the surge of anger (or lust, say) that I feel when
	objects in my environment present themselves to my senses
	in certain ways; however, I am supposed to govern my
	subsequent thoughts and activities regarding these objects
	by the force of my will.  [Chapter 4]

If one accepts Dennett's point of view, then those males who possess
Free Will can be expected to behave in a civilized manner, while those
males who do not believe in Free Will will feel free to act out their
lust while protesting that they "can't help it" because their behavior
is deterministically governed by the presence of the environmental
stimulus.

The only practical value of this point is that the female can infer
from the male behavior whether the male is acting under his own
self-control or under the control of the female via deterministic
stimulus response.  In other words, the beach scene is a sorting
algorithm which the female may employ to sort the gentleman from
the boor.  Having accomplished the sort, she may then judge whose
company she would prefer.  Conversely, the boorish male learns
nothing from the episode, while the gentlemanly male learns that
he is dealing with a discriminating female.

--Barry Kort