Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!mgnetp!ihnp4!zehntel!dual!amd!decwrl!decvax!cca!ima!ism780b!jim
From: jim@ism780b.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Re: B.F. Skinner (and dead Greeks) - (nf)
Message-ID: <27@ism780b.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 27-Jul-84 00:40:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: ism780b.27
Posted: Fri Jul 27 00:40:48 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Jul-84 05:23:44 EDT
Lines: 26

#R:ecsvax:-285700:ism780b:27500020:000:1212
ism780b!jim    Jul 19 00:46:00 1984

> Does ANYthing matter if all the movements of our molecules are predetermined?

The mattering of things is an emotional state.  You can train yourself
to let nothing matter, but that is independent of the level of determinism,
aside from the fact that you can use your belief in determinism as an excuse
to not let anything matter.  But you and your mattering are *inside* of the
system.  Choosing to become despondent because nothing matters is still
choosing.

> Why shouldn't they bounce in such a way as to make brains?  Maybe
> that is one particular favoured way for swirls of molecules to group.
> Maybe all this behaviour science, evolution, biology, etc. is just
> the study of the motions of molecules.

Well, of course the brain is "just" a bunch of molecules which are "just" a
bunch of atoms which are "just" a bunch of probability waves.  But it is
still a brain.  Just like a program is just a bunch of statements, which are
just a bunch of tokens, which are just a bunch of characters.  The problem
is that you are trying to figure out what it *really* is, when in fact
all these things are *concepts* which have their own existence, and are what
we *really* deal with.

-- Jim Balter (ima!jim)