Free Will: Egnor shows neurological proof (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, December 01, 2020, 20:10 (1453 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: Egnor follows option 2, as does Aquinas: “My free will is inclination based on abstract reasoning that arises wholly from me. Nothing other than me determines my will.” But Egnor also says: “…these complex seizures always involve concrete thoughts and actions” but “There are no seizures that invoke abstract thought or abstract decisions—there are no free will seizures.” If the soul is responsible for abstract reasoning, then it should be able to reason about the concrete thoughts that occur when the brain is sick. BUT IT DOESN’T! So how on earth does this “prove” that there is a soul and there is free will? On the contrary, it supports the materialist equation of sick brain = sick thoughts, clever brain = clever thoughts, stupid brain = stupid thoughts. (However, this is contradicted by NDEs, in which abstract reasoning takes place when the brain is not functioning. Hence my own agnosticism on the subject.)

DAVID: The point is the brain never produces abstract thought during seizures. Only the soul can do that as it uses the brain. You can't avoid that thought.

dhw: The point is that the SOUL never produces abstract thought during seizures, but if only the soul does the thinking (as you have agreed), it should be able to think about the information being sent to it by the sick brain. IT DOESN’T.

No. My view is the soul cannot recognize what is truly going on because it is trapped into using a sick brain. A seizure can produce false sensory information as my sea shore patient's smell of the was a seizure reproducing a memory. The soul did recognize that brain production.

dhw: Conclusion: the mechanism for abstract thought (Egnor equates it with reasoning) has been put out of action by the brain seizure, and therefore the mechanism for abstract thought must be part of the brain. Hence "sick brain = sick thoughts".

Totally backwards. Egnor says if the brain is an exact/primary source of all abstractions, the abnormal electrical impulse, which drives into the abstraction area, and should produce an abstraction during a seizure, but never does. Compared to sensory and movement actions which do occur. That is grand mal. It doesn't produce abstractions. In petit mal consciousness is turned off!!! (They are called 'absence attacks'). Egnor knows exactly what He is presenting. It is logical and correct. For abstract thought the soul must be actively attacked to the brain neurons, and only that arrangement produces abstractions.