A Sense of Free Will: the consciousness quagmire (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, September 05, 2015, 18:47 (3156 days ago) @ romansh

Previous entry:-Romansh: If your actions are not a result of your beliefs thoughts etc then what are they a result of?-David: My actions are the result of my decisions. That is the only cause and effect. Some of the independent processes in the brain are developed to help us understand reality, not to control our thoughts or actions.-
> Romansh: Yes ... decision and will are in effect synonymous in this case as are wish, want etc.-We are allowed to do as we wish or will. Thought leads to will.
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> Romansh: So are you decisions independent of cause and effect?
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> > David: That is the only cause and effect.
 
> Romansh: The only cause and effect? ... This requires some elaboration. You can't put cause and effect into some metaphorical box and think of the contents as isolated. -We have elaborated at length before. Of course my decisions are based on previous experience and current events. What are you hunting for?
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> > Some of the independent processes in the brain are developed to help us understand reality, not to control our thoughts or actions.-> Romansh: Independent processes? Which processes are these?> 
> Exactly in what narrow sense are these processes independent?-You have discussed one of them recently, eye movement. Another obvious one is pattern recognition. These are provided by the brain to help us. Again, a biologic computer is not a man-made computer or camera.