RE: The Brain=Mind Fallacy
June 1, 2012 at 7:26 pm
(This post was last modified: June 1, 2012 at 7:48 pm by Angrboda.)
(June 1, 2012 at 7:03 pm)StatCrux Wrote:(June 1, 2012 at 6:52 pm)teaearlgreyhot Wrote: I'm not really following some of the things being said in this thread.
I'll probably regret asking this question...why can't it be said that thoughts are physical?
It can, that's an option, in fact it's more consistent with materialism. the problem is that it destroys freewill, we basically become automatons, Daniel Dennet agrees, saying freewill is illusory.
I think you're misunderstanding or misstating Dennett's position. I would be surprised to hear him say what you just said, and I've been reading Dennett for over 20 years. (Though admittedly I haven't read him lately, and though it's been at least a decade since my last reading of Elbow Room, I doubt he's defected from the compatibilist position as you suggest. His essay from 2002's The Oxford Handbook Of Free Will is in the section on compatibilism, though I haven't confirmed its content. Freedom Evolves, 2003, is on my reading list; I persuaded one of my atheist groups to make it a book selection. )
ETA: Speaking of which....
"Zawidzki reveals the systematic structure of my work as never before, and shows, with more patience than I have been able to muster, just how and why the parts fit together as they do. Zawidzki also usefully points out the weak spots in my position that need more work."
— Daniel Dennett on the back cover of the introductory work, by Tadeuz Zawidzki