What, Why & How do we Know ?
There are lots of unnecessary (*) myths about free-will, and I tend to espouse free-won’t variants in response to misleading interpretations of Libet. Some people use the repeatability of a golfer’s putt, I regularly use the thought experiment of imagining being able to return the serve from a high-class tennis player (after Daniel Wegner, just … Continue reading “Free-Will – Returning a High-Class Tennis Serve”
The bonfire-burning an effigy of Grenfell complete with victims, as some kind of entertaining joke, is the latest free-speech battleground according to some. It’s very like the Count Dankula case, that is it’s very complicated. And as I type, this case is referred for investigation, no actual crime necessarily. It’s a complex decision that could … Continue reading “When is Free-Speech a Hate Crime?”
Been reading The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force by Jeffrey M Schwartz and Sharon Begley, at the suggestion of an exchange between Dave Morey and Harvey Taylor on FB. Other than the two title topics being part of any complete brain-mind story, the only real connection between Neuroplasticity and Mental Force … Continue reading “Brain Plasticity and Free Will – Really!”
John Stuart Mill of his own free will, On half a pint of shandy was particulary ill. Will. The Pythons’ song memeing itself in my brain the last day or so, was prompted by listening to the BBC’s “In Our Time” this last Thursday. Anthony Grayling, Janet Radcliffe Williams, and Alan Ryan discussing the life … Continue reading “Of His Own Free Will”
[Work in Progress – Draft will be edited without notification.] [Feedback appreciated on the “See / Refs” – where more are needed? Meantime all those indicated will be elaborated and worked into the text. And obviously on the intelligibility of the text so far. Drafting arose out of the “Three Essays” post, particularly “Algorithms for … Continue reading “Information Ontology of Mind and Body”
An excellent, short (10m), animation of a lecture by Iain McGilchrist. (Hat tip to David Morey on Facebook for the link.) Blogged several references to reading McGilchrist’s “The Master and his Emissary” but never wrote a complete review in one post – It so knocked me out, it led me into other connected readings immediately. … Continue reading “McGilchrist’s Divided Brain”
Just a holding post for an issue that keeps cropping up in Dennett (see previous post). Who is me ? In the sections on will and quasi-altruistic (long term enlightened) self-interest, he mentions something I’ve raised before – often in nationalism / political debates – is the me / we distinction. In considering what is … Continue reading “Identify Yourself”
I may have posted this before (from Aug 2022) but was prompted to read and share it today since Kevin Mitchell re-tweeted it. Like the original Twitterstorm the prompt was a heated dialogue involving Sabine Hossenfelder, this time with Philip Goff (all publicity is good publicity if you’re selling a book I guess) – but … Continue reading “Determinist Reductionism Sucks – Yet Again”
No, he’s not. He does not say that “Consciousness is an Illusion”. End of. In short: Dennett’s position is that: Consciousness and conscious will are as real and evolved as anything else in the world. The powerful (useful, but misleading) ILLUSION is the Cartesian theatre / video screen with the homunculus viewer / user as … Continue reading “Is Dennett an Illusionist?”
Mentioned in a recent “systems sciences” post being recommended to read Peter Corning’s “Nature’s Magic”. Well I’ve had it a couple of days now and like what I read. As a result of the original “see inside” skim I’d already discovered that Corning’s idea of nature’s magic is SYNERGY, essentially that the whole is more … Continue reading “Synergy – Nature’s Magic?”