[xmca] Hello Other Brain, how are you?

[Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net>]

The pubic broadcaster in Oz, the ABC, is a great institution 
really, and "All In The Mind" is one of my favourite 
programs, but sometimes some of these guys really get under 
my skin. Today they were interviewing Michael Gazzaniga, and 
he started off the program talking about this strange 
illusion we have that we think of each other as persons when 
really we are just brains, a kind of quirky but conforting 
illusion.

The thing that intrigued me was when, about 20 minutes into 
the interview, the ABC interviewer asked him: "What about 
Free Will and personal responsibility?" and suddenly he 
brought "society" into his 100% physiological picture. More 
to say that personal responsibility (and therefore Free 
Will) were concepts only relevant to society and really 
nothing to do with brains, apologising like crazy for the 
awful "dualism" which of course he is dead against - it is 
*all* physiology after all.

I have a\observed that when John R Searle is confronted with 
the problem of a natural biological system "appearing to" 
enjoy free will, he resorts to quantum indeterminacy, which 
to me is nothing more than a quick change of subject hoping 
that you will forget the question and he can carry on.

Do people think that Free Will is in this sense the Achilles 
Heel of neurodeterminism or neurological monoism, or 
whatever you want to call it?

Andy

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Andy Blunden http://www.erythrospress.com/
Classics in Activity Theory: Hegel, Leontyev, Meshcheryakov, 
Ilyenkov $20 ea

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