Science of Self (Humans)

by David Turell , Saturday, March 15, 2014, 23:13 (3695 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw;I don't think we can deny cause and effect, but most of us do feel that we have freedom, and so the compatibilists play with questionable distinctions, and the libertarians fall back on dualism or latterly on the weirdness of quantum mechanics. Nobody has a clue, which is why I cannot make the assumption, as you do, that consciousness, will and the self are purely physical.-I think there are different levels of cause and effect. At the purely physical/ material level it is easy to observe and understand, but not when we encounter quantum effects. With quantum mechanics cause and effect are not clear unless we introduce information and consciousness. When we discuss the brain and its interpretation of of our senses, we know we are somewhat removed from reality by a series of elecrochemical and biometric processes, which end up giving us the interpretive sight, hearing, feeling or seeing we accurately need. That fact we are removed from a more direct connection should not make us doubt our senses. This observation point to the fact that we are experiencing our consciousness in the same somewhat removed fashion. And the only way I can put it together is to assume that as in the material world there is this strange quantum effect, and it must also be operational at the brain/consciousness level to explain why we cannot fully explain it. Which makes me comfortable with the idea that the dualism proposal suggests two parts of the same quantum brain, at two levels. The determinism is in the way the electrobiochemical mechanism must function to provide the result we have. We determine the colnscious results we want, but the underlying mechanism runs on its own, responding to us. Why else should the brain exhibit the plasticity and alteration of function and neurons based on our repeated practice with the brain, as in playing an instrument or a sport. We have a very definite effect on brain function as we now see how plastic the brain really is. A fully deterministic brain would not exhibit this flexibility. We are truly in charge.