Free Will, Consciousness, Identity (Identity)

by dhw, Monday, July 30, 2012, 19:35 (4285 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: This learned article will help the discussion. We are responsible for our bad decisions:-http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/neuroscience-and-moral-responsibility....-DAVID: And I view this as a misguided attempt to explain consciousness. Again fMRI is a blood flow study, not a neural connection study. Apples and oranges make fruit salad, not sense.-http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120727095555.htm-For me the important feature of this second article is the multiple layers of consciousness involved: dreams spring from the subconscious, but lucid dreamers are not only aware that they are dreaming ... they can even control their dreams, and yet still not be conscious of themselves being conscious of dreaming and controlling (since they are still asleep). Locating which areas of the brain are involved does not provide us with any sort of explanation.-I found the first article somewhat ambivalent ... as it has to be. Everybody struggles to find the borderline between personal responsibility and uncontrollable causes. The context of crime and punishment is probably the most common area when it comes to discussing free will, and the debate always centres on the extent to which the person is deemed to be in conscious control of his or her actions (= "intended" versus "caused" in the article). For me, consciousness remains absolutely central to any definition of free will.
 
Romansh's comments raise questions which I shall try to answer in my response to him.