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From: rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: B.F. Skinner (and dead Greeks)
Message-ID: <870@pyuxn.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 17-Jul-84 18:35:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxn.870
Posted: Tue Jul 17 18:35:12 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Jul-84 03:38:24 EDT
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Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J.
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> = Brian Peterson   tektronix!shark!brianp

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

If you believe that it matters, i.e., if you are conditioned to believe that
your input to the world has a potential positive effect on the world around
you and if you are conditioned to wish to have such a positive effect on the
world around you, then yes, it will matter.  So much for life being
"meaningless" in a predetermined or even a non-free-willed world.

> 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. 
> (Throw a jillion perfectly elastic balls into a perfectly elastic
> room, no other forces, and do you get self awareness?)

Or, if not a "favoured" way, a way that just happened to happen here.  (As
opposed to the billions of other places where it didn't happen.)
-- 
"Now, Benson, I'm going to have to turn you into a dog for a while."
"Ohhhh, thank you, Master!!"			Rich Rosen    pyuxn!rlr