On Wed, 23 Mar 2005 20:49:22 -0500 "John Hewlett" <john.hewlett@usa.com>
writes:
> I have learned as someone has pointed out that the idea of free will
> is kind of a grey area. One book that you might be interested in
> (and I am reading it right now my self) is by Walter J. Freeman
> J.r., he is a neuroscientist at Berkley. One of the most best in the
> country probably. The book is called "How Brains Make Up Their
> Minds" and I have not run into any QM in the book. I would like to
> see some different approaches to the free-will issue besides quantum
> approaches although I still find the quantum approaches terribly
> interesting. Quantum approaches have been around for a while. One is
> the Eccles/Beck approach. Eccles being one of the greatest
> neurophysiologist of the century and Beck a quantum physicist. Dr.
> Haarsma you of course know this issue gives me some troubles as I
> have e-mailed you privatly before.
>
> Thanks a bunch,
> John
>
Let me throw in another aspect of freedom: there is no way to prove that
one is free. Consider: Al in situation S with choice between A and B
chooses A, says he did it freely. But Bob claims that Al had to choose A.
Al replies that he'll show that it's his choice by going back to S and
choosing B this time. But Al cannot go back to S, which did not have the
choice of A in its background. The closest he can come is to something
like S, call it S'--if it can even be that close.
The only thing we have is that conviction that the human being's choice
makes a difference. It underlies ascriptions of moral responsibility,
rationality, the things that are distinctively human.
Dave
Received on Wed Mar 23 22:40:00 2005
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