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From: laura@utzoo.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: B.F. Skinner (and dead Greeks)
Message-ID: <4067@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 12-Jul-84 08:50:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.4067
Posted: Thu Jul 12 08:50:07 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Jul-84 08:50:07 EDT
References: flairvax.600, <2857@ecsvax.UUCP> <4043@utzoo.UUCP>, <834@pyuxn.UUCP> <4058@utzoo.UUCP>, <844@pyuxn.URe: B.F. Skinner (and dead GThu, 12-Jul-84 08:50:07 EDT
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 22

Rich,
The B.F. Skinner version of ``conditioning'' eliminated the idea of free will.
You can only do what you are conditioned to do. At that rate, when I think
about some decision I am trying to make I am just going through some
busy states before I go off and do what I was going to do anyway. Predestination
is in -- though it is one's genes and one's environment which determine
everything, not some God.

Given this model, thinking is pretty inefficient. However, if I am not
determined then thinking is a pretty useful thing! 

The question is -- am I totally determined into having the thoughts that
I am having now by my genes and my environment...or is there a ``me''
there which could think about something different if I chose to?

This question is independent of the question of what that ``me'' would
be -- an effect of my needing language to talk about my thoughts, or
some non-corporal soul, or the inevitable result of the complexity of
my brain.

Laura Creighton
utzoo!laura