Ourcellves? (Identity)

by romansh , Monday, April 07, 2014, 00:29 (3671 days ago) @ David Turell
edited by unknown, Monday, April 07, 2014, 00:38


> > dhw:The unique combination of cells that is "me" is still me, regardless of where those cells came from. The consciousness engendered by my cells is "my" consciousness, and the conscious decisions taken by my cells are "my" decisions, taken as a result of "my" cells weighing up the pros and cons. And although I think we would all agree that my upbringing, experiences etc. do somehow influence the behaviour of my cells, the way my cells respond to my upbringing and my experiences will still constitute "my" responses, because "I" am my cells. Therefore the argument that "we" are governed by our cells and consequently have no will of our own becomes a contradiction in terms, because if "we" ARE our cells, we are governed by ourselves. And that is as good a definition of autonomy as you can get.
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> I thoroughly agree. Romansh is reluctant to accept the feed-back that obviously exists by our personal use of our own brains. We change our brain's structure all through life with our education, experiencs, and memories. This cannot be acceptable to someone who is simply a reductionist materialist.-I am begining to wonder if there is some difference in our physical structures in our brains. -I had never thought much about free will, self etc until six years ago. When discussing it with a member on the old agnostic forums, I was led to think about it with some care. But I immediately realized there was a problem with my conception of free will and eventually self. And funnily enough some people when presented with the same connundrum seem incapable of seeing the problem. Curious ... -Last year I bought a car with a automatic transmission ... it took a while to become accustomed to it. The car must have very slightly restructured my brain.-There is a big difference between I change my brain structure and my brain structure changes.