tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post8681361471085534652..comments2024-02-29T03:57:00.088-05:00Comments on The Mermaid's Tale: Who needs DNA when we've got fMRI?Anne Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09212151396672651221noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-9248832977931149992011-11-27T12:23:09.454-05:002011-11-27T12:23:09.454-05:00I have not read the Dennett things you cite, and a...I have not read the Dennett things you cite, and am not a big fan of his anyway, because I think he's far too much of a Darwinian determinist (and I don't care for the strident atheism, which I think is gratuitous). As long as there are so many neurons and interconnections, and so much stochasticity in development and brain function, and so little understanding of what that stochasticity really means, one can take a philosophical view that free will is an illusion of what's at heart a purely deterministic process. Or one can say that probability plays such a role that there really is not the kind of predictability that a mechanical determinist would argue makes 'free' will an illusion.<br /><br />The key to truly free will would be if it is totally un-forced--that is, not due to any force. That would put it beyond the realm of any science that we know of today.<br /><br />Since I certainly don't know enough to judge how free is free, and see no evidence beyond wishful thinking that there is truly free will, I can't really see the point of arguing about it.<br /><br />But if I have time I'll try to see what Dennett says about it.Ken Weisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02049713123559138421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-36081195511677124322011-11-26T06:49:25.793-05:002011-11-26T06:49:25.793-05:00As long as it's clear that behavior is complex...As long as it's clear that behavior is complex, and as unpredictable as, say, heart disease, where the parameters of risk may be generally understood but a given heart attack may occur seemingly out of nowhere, and the heart attack that everyone knows is going to happen never does, reductionist approaches to behavior, to understanding causation and thus prediction are not going to be helpful. As with heart disease, when we'll never know on an individual basis why a given heart attack happened, and how many we prevented, we'll never know who is destined to become a serial killer and how many murders intervention has prevented. <br /><br />What do we know about behavior? That brains are plastic, and behavior is due to the interaction of genes, environment, experience, and chance. That says it all, but it says nothing. And I don't know how we can know any more than that.Anne Buchananhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09212151396672651221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-76144938537003636892011-11-26T02:47:24.183-05:002011-11-26T02:47:24.183-05:00As much as I must agree with Ken (above: and how c...As much as I must agree with Ken (above: and how could I disagree?), there really is NO point in discussing these issues until all and sundry have read Dan Dennett: Freedom Evolves http://www.amazon.ca/Freedom-Evolves-Daniel-Dennett/dp/0142003840/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322293057&sr=1-5<br />, and its causal (hah!) precursor: Elbow Room: The varieties of free will worth wanting<br /><br />Otherwise we spend all our time running around in centuries' old circles of no import. Instead of those tired, old dispositions, let Dennett define the default, and begin the argument there. I suspect most will find that they have none, other than: na-hah, or, is so.<br />http://www.amazon.ca/Elbow-Room-Varieties-Worth-Wanting/dp/0262540428/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322293354&sr=1-1-fkmr0John R. Vokeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03822243132435056442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-59186471196487198522011-11-23T19:13:24.975-05:002011-11-23T19:13:24.975-05:00Geez, you probably don't believe your genes ma...Geez, you probably don't believe your genes made you do it, either! You must be one of those who is stubbornly against science and deny that scientists are the smart people who know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but.Ken Weisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02049713123559138421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-79049889475795167102011-11-23T18:02:28.263-05:002011-11-23T18:02:28.263-05:00Is this "my brain made me do it" differe...Is this "my brain made me do it" different in any serious way from "the devil made me do it?" Only now we use a scalpel to exorcise the tumor? If absolutely everyone with this frontal tumor is a pedophile, then I'll buy this 100%. If only some are, then it is like growing up _____ (fill in the blank: poor, the wrong color, in a broken family, handicapped, dyslexic...) as an excuse for criminal behavior. I persist in believing we have some responsibility for how we handle the issues we have been given genetically.Pat Shipmanhttp://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-animal-connectionnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-65760360871224401942011-11-23T08:35:51.877-05:002011-11-23T08:35:51.877-05:00Thanks Anne.Thanks Anne.Holly Dunsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05260104967932801186noreply@blogger.com