A free will question

[haas mark]

Nope. 'Fraid I must still disagree. Say you were a soldier out in the feild that had to be operated on and they had to use morphine to do so. Morphine is very addictive, so you now want it. Depending on how much was was necessary over the recovery time, it could be a minor desire to a nearly physical need. You didn't want to become addicted to it, but that choice was out of your hands. You can ignore/fight that desire, get counseling or medical help. Or you can give in to it, which would be illegal. If you do give in, you are responsible for your actions to satiate that desire.

Same situation, except the motives of the one placing the desire would come under attack as well in the original question.

True this, but how is that the same as someone else being inside your head?

[Cthulhu-chan]

Hrm. One of us is misinterpreting the original question. The way I understood it was that the device simply ingrained a particular want of the operators choosing in the subject's psyche, and that was it. I don't believe it was being suggested that the operator would be piggy-backing in your head. That's why I treated it much like an addiction problem. You may or may not like the new desire, but you are still responsible for how you deal with it.

[haas mark]

Hrm. One of us is misinterpreting the original question. The way I understood it was that the device simply ingrained a particular want of the operators choosing in the subject's psyche, and that was it. I don't believe it was being suggested that the operator would be piggy-backing in your head. That's why I treated it much like an addiction problem. You may or may not like the new desire, but you are still responsible for how you deal with it.

Now assume that you could build a mind control device that would cause a person to want to do whatever you ask them to.

I misread it. It says later, they can still do it. But it is a lot like me wanting to cut. If the urge is strong enough, I will probably do it, but only when depressed enough. If the person does it, and they don't like it, technically they cannot be held responsible for it, because you created the urge to be strong enough for them to do it; they won't feel satisfied until they do.

[Cthulhu-chan]

While I don't disagree that the one causing the desire originally shares responsibility, that doesn't give you a 'get out of jail free' card.

Let's replace cutting with shoplifting. It's wrong. You know it is. You are not being coerced to give the stolen items to anybody. You won't die if you don't do it. You just want to do it. While it's unarguable that the operator would be in the wrong for doing this to you, if you give in to it so are you. It may sound harsh, but your satisfaction does not factor into the equation. Pedophiles get satisfaction from molesting little kids, but that doesn't make it right or absolve them of responsibility for thier actions.