Emergence (Evolution)

by dhw, Friday, October 11, 2013, 14:34 (4060 days ago) @ David Turell

George: By coincidence I came across this link on twitter:-http://www.iep.utm.edu/emergenc/-A lot of disagreements about freewill and consciousness etc it seems to me turn on what "I" means. In my view what one is results from (a) the evolution of one's species, (b) the particular genetic make-up one inherits from parents, (c) each individual's physical growth and development, (d) one's personal life experiences, which are held in one's memory, which is not necessarily all in the brain.
 
In short what I am now is the result of my history. The "I" is not a sort of homunculus in the control room of the brain. It is everything that has gone in to making up one's existence. Even the people you have interacted with and the places you have visited may be considered to form a part of one's self or one's 'extended phenotype'.-DAVID: I fully agree with your analysis of each of ours' existing personalilties.
Thank you for the reference. It concludes:-"Following this line of thought it can be argued that though we do not have actual empirical proof that emergent properties exist, the right attitude to hold is to be open to the possibility o their existence. That is, given that there is no available physiological account of how mental states can cause physical states (or how they can be identical), while at the same time having everyday evidence that they do, as well as a plausible mental—psychological or folk psychological—explanation for it, we have independent grounds to believe that emergent properties could possibly exist."
Consciousness appears emergent to me.-I also agree with George's description of what makes up our identity, but you are talking about two different things. One is the influences that shape our identity (on which we all agree), and the other is whether the identity can be independent of the body. George does not believe in an afterlife, and so I suspect that for him (he will correct me if I am wrong) "emergence" ends when the biochemical processes end. For David, "emergent property" means something non-material that can survive death. See my post on "Cell Memory".