[Spacemonkey]

Originally Posted by peacegirl

I guess it can't be falsified then. This is an observed law where there is no condition in which it could be false. There are no exemptions. Does that mean it's wrong or can't be proven true? No it doesn't. And what does it matter if we cannot falsify it in this way when this is not necessary to see that Lessans' observations are accurate and, more importantly, if we get the desired results? If no one in the world can desire to hurt others under the changed conditions, isn't this proof enough that we can only move in one direction which is the only choice possible? Free will states that we can move in more than one direction; that we can choose bad as well as good, but if we can't choose that which is "bad", then this moral dilemma is solved.

It means that it is an unfalsifiable tautology. It means it cannot be empirically proven true, as it is not empirically testable and has no empirical content. It means it is in the category of '1+1=2', 'All apples are apples', and 'Nothing can be both entirely red and partially green'. It also means it does not prove any form of determinism relevant to any kind of compulsion, either causal or psychological, for both causation and psychology are empirical domains and the unfalsifiable satisfaction principle has no empirical content.