Harris on free will: free will defended (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, June 22, 2015, 00:59 (3235 days ago) @ romansh

David: My brain is a chemical computer, but more than the computer in front of me or you. I control it almost as much as you or I control our electronic computers. 
> Romansh: So how do you control brain chemistry - with your thoughts? I don't think so.-I don't control my brain chemistry any more than you reach inside your computer to control the transistors. I make my brain have thoughts. The neurons respond chemically.
> 
> Romansh Unless you are arguing for a stark dualism of mind and matter being separate, then you have to provide some evidence for this position.-I make my brain produce the conscious thoughts I want to appear. I think there is a marked degree of dualism. None of us can show how consciousness arises from the matter of the brain.
> 
> > My brain use is not independent of the brain chemistry, but also not controlled by it.
> 
> Romansh: I would beg to differ here. Of course there are environmental aspects, mechanical and perhaps quantum phenomena occurring in your brain. I would argue that you are controlling none of these in any meaningful sense of the word control.-You are right to that extent. I do not directly control each and every neuron or even masses of neurons. But I control what I think, although it is not clear how that is accomplished, since it falls into the black hole of how consciousness arises.