(October 23, 2012 at 10:48 pm)Darkstar Wrote:Very aporpos! This is exactly my thought regarding free will. Separating emotion from will seems of questionable utility or value.(October 23, 2012 at 10:42 pm)whateverist Wrote: Even if we could take total control of our brain's many functions, it is questionable whether that would be a life worth living or whether you could actually perform as well within the limits of the conscious mind as you're able to from the totality of your mind.
I never argued it would be a good thing, and those were rhetorical questions illustrating the involuntary. Actually, the whim is really based on emotion, and a small amount of it is applied to answer questions without absolutely concrete answers.
Man with literally no emotions has severely impaired descision making abilities as a result.
Quote:There was this man –Elliot- who was a perfect husband, father and manager who’s personality changed radically after removing a tumor in his brain. After surgery he lost his ability to make decisions. A neurologist Antonio Damasio studied that man and he found out that Elliot had no emotions. He showed him different pictures which normally trigger emotions (e.g. a naked woman, a house on fire etc) and measured changes in his palms’ sweat output. That’s sort of like a lying detector. The test showed absolutely no change in Elliot’s perspiration no matter what photograph was shown to him. Therefore Elliot had no emotions.
The sad thing is that Elliot lost his ability to make decisions. He was “rational” about every little aspect of life – always weighing the pros and cons of every alternative but he was never able to decide what to do. He couldn’t decide which shoe to put on first or where to park his car etc. He had a lot of problems. Elliot lost his wife, his job and friends. The neurologist concluded that humans need emotions to make decisions. We can’t function properly without emotions.