Free will again (Humans)

by David Turell , Monday, February 27, 2012, 15:39 (4652 days ago) @ dhw

I object to Romansh's definition of free will as "the ability to act or to make choices independently of the environment or of the universe". It defines free will out of existence, since NOTHING we know of is independent of the universe.-This is not meant to avoid direct discussion with rom, but my observation of my enlightening conversation with him, which helped clarify my own thoughts, is his concept of interaction of chemical, electrical and quantum influences on our mental states. He ascribes some sort of primordial influence,which is hard for me to fathom. An organic chemical is totally inert. it must be placed in a living milieu full of interaction with other chemicals to show its own activity. A photon is a photon, is a photon. It is emitted by something, but from our standpoint, it takes intelligent input in experiment for it to do its thing. When it hits the eye, there is an enormous cascade of events, and I propose that what we 'see' is really what there is to be seen. There is too much rumination otherwise. The action spike a fraction of a second before we act is a sign of our intentionality preceding our consciousness. This comment is my conscious attempt to make a contributikon to this discussion. I intended to do it, and here it is, by my free will.