(November 26, 2021 at 9:36 pm)polymath257 Wrote: They are internal because they are *in me*. In the same sense that the fusion reactions that power the sun are in the sun, not external to it. Sure, the hydrogen in the sun ultimately came from outside of the sun, but that doesn't seem very relevant.
The point is that very minor changes to the internal state would lead to large differences in the results. That means that the 'causal nexus', if you will, is within my brain and body. That is distinct from what happens if, say, the wind blows slightly differently. That *won't* mean that the actions I take will be substantially different.
This ultimately relies on chaotic dynamics: sensitive dependence on initial conditions. The conditions that determine which brand of milk I choose depend mostly on events happening in my brain. Those are part of my interaction with my environment, as it should be. And what happens in my brain *is me*. I am not something distinct from the processes in my brain. At least, my psychology isn't.
If the conditions in your brain that determined which brand of milk you choose ultimately depends largely on the totality of your external experience and the genes which were passed externally to the first cell that would become you, is there still really a causal nexus is within you, or your “mind” simply become a convenient accounting bucket in which to place not the cause, but a collection of intermediate processes somewhere in the middle between cause and the effect in question, that so happen to occur within a particular durable configuration of molecules to which we attach particular emotive significance?
