(July 9, 2014 at 9:07 am)Esquilax Wrote: Well, consciousness and the things that govern it aren't super well understood, and I tend to think of it as an emergent property of chemical processes that's more complex than that description might indicate. But there's a certain type of theist who'll point the finger right at you if you say you don't believe in a soul and say that the only other alternative is "molecules and motion," that if you don't believe in a soul you must therefore believe you're just a collection of atoms, couched in the most dry, simplistic terms possible. It's a false dichotomy, but the demand made of the atheist is that they can't believe in free will and that everything is determined by brain chemicals.
It's not accurate, but that's the canard. Personally, I like the compatibilist view: it may well be that I don't have free will, and my eventual choices are governed by neurochemistry, but in my first person experience it feels like I'm making my own choices, so why should I care?
Might I say first of all I love (
) where this discussion is moving. I would agree that consciousness isn’t well understood. I did a study on depression some time ago for school and found it to be… how should I say… not very helpful? In studying behavioral and cognitive therapies it seemed as though “body and soul” we entwined; one doctor said that fMRI scans would show that thoughts induced the chemistry and not the other way around. Problem is the chemistry causes inflammation in the body creating stress that then feeds back to the depression causing thoughts.
Needless to say I found it to be rather inconclusive (… like every fucking paper I’ve ever written!).
I don’t wish to impose a false dichotomy, but you can see some it’s merits I’m sure? One problem I may have with the compatibility view is that it’s essentially a form of self-delusion, is it not? Whether you perceive it as free will or not it’s all the same. (Or I could still just be harping on a false dichotomy? XD )
And by the way, thank you Jenny for your clear and concise contribution to the discussion. But this last part intrigues me…
Quote: That said, the working of the brain is so complex that I can't say it feels like a bunch of chemical reactions. And I'll be damned if I going to behave as if it were.
What do you mean by that last part?
Call me Josh, it's fine.
