spockrates Wrote:Well, if my brain is my mind and it is in control, then my brain has control of the decisions made. It is free, so I must be! However, if you are saying my mind is not my brain, but something else (like a soul) then I suppose my brain might be the puppet master pulling my soul's strings, yes. But is that what you are saying? My soul is slave to my brain? If not, then how can my brain not be free, since it has complete control over me and is, in fact me?
Free will requires that you be able to make decisions freely. What I meant by your brain structure being in control is that your decisions may not in fact be free, but are determined by the brain's make-up. For instance, we know that the frontal lobe determines your ability to control your impulses. You may be the most reserved, in control person, but after an injury to the frontal lobe, you could become the most impulsive person in the world, unable to properly suppress the behaviors you previously could.
So, your brain structure being in control was not the best choice of words. What I should have said is that your brain structure may predetermine which choices you will make when faced with different options. How does our idea of free will fit in when our decisions are so contingent on the structure of our brain?
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
