(March 13, 2012 at 2:33 pm)Mister Agenda Wrote: We know love exists because we all have experienced enough of it to know what the other person is talking about, we can correlate their behavior with memories of our own internal states. Free will is something we perceive ourselves exercising. Dissecting it into its component parts can make it seem as though it is only an illusion, but the same can be said for love. Does knowing the hormonal and neural states involved in love make it only a biological process and not an emotion, or is it a biological process AND an emotion?
Self Authenticating Private Evidence etc etc
I don't LIKE my point of view, and to a certain extent I sympathise with the theist who KNOWS god exists. If you hate the idea of no god, no free will, no love, at least beyond self-authenticating private delusions, then for the sake of personal sanity we would rather buy into the delicious and comforting illusion of free will, love and depending on your personality, god. Its an expression of delusion, some we can't live comfortably without, and for some of us, some you can.
Oddly enough, determinism is indicated by the mere fact we have personality. Enough of our biological and electrochemical memory is static enough to give predictable responses and body language to stimuli. In many respects, its an indication that there are strong imperatives to how we act. It becomes very difficult to not be "You".
If free will existed, I would theorise that our concept of personality would be vastly more indistinct. Just a hypothesis of course.
Does love, free will seem real to you, of course, in fact, even thou I type this, I type it with the "feeling" of free will, and I type it "knowing" I love my wife. But if we remove our personal preferences, which potentially keep us sane, we buy into these comforting illusions.
Quote: The alternative to free will is complete lack of autonomy (if free will is an illusion, so are a lot of other things that depend on it). I have to wonder if disbelieving in something it's impossible to act as if I disbelieve in makes sense.
Its certainly impossible for me to act as if I don't have free will, or act as if I don't love and adore my wife and children. However, this proves nothing but our preference for how we want the universe to be.
Like atheism, the truth is not particularly comforting. I suspect that the only real difference is that god we can imagine dealing without, but we cannot conceive of dealing without love or free will, and those that do, are sociopathic or psychotic.
Is it true? Who knows, I'm theorising, and explaining my own viewpoint. I express my opinion with no view on its certainty as it remains, despite supporting evidence, that the final conclusion is very much into the air.
I hope I'm wrong, but I'm "agnostic" enough about it to not worry about it beyond an exercise in thought.
Self-authenticating private evidence is useless, because it is indistinguishable from the illusion of it. ― Kel, Kelosophy Blog
If you’re going to watch tele, you should watch Scooby Doo. That show was so cool because every time there’s a church with a ghoul, or a ghost in a school. They looked beneath the mask and what was inside?
The f**king janitor or the dude who runs the waterslide. Throughout history every mystery. Ever solved has turned out to be. Not Magic. ― Tim Minchin, Storm
If you’re going to watch tele, you should watch Scooby Doo. That show was so cool because every time there’s a church with a ghoul, or a ghost in a school. They looked beneath the mask and what was inside?
The f**king janitor or the dude who runs the waterslide. Throughout history every mystery. Ever solved has turned out to be. Not Magic. ― Tim Minchin, Storm
