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From: ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: New book on Free Will....
Message-ID: <111@spar.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 26-Feb-85 22:08:51 EST
Article-I.D.: spar.111
Posted: Tue Feb 26 22:08:51 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 27-Feb-85 12:13:58 EST
References: <325@cybvax0.UUCP> <188@ubvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis)
Organization: Schlumberger Palo Alto Research, CA
Lines: 34

>Elbow Room is an MIT press book by Daniel Dennett (...) well known for
>co-authoring The Mind's I with Doug Hofstadter.

>He's known for most strongly opposing dualist theories of mind/body
>separation, pushing instead the point of view that the mind is just a more
>complex computer(...) The human mind is a higher form of a self-regulating,
>goal-directed machine.

>And the amount of self-control we have depends on whether we can
>realistically pick out an agent of control over us in the external world
>(i.e. another being like ourselves, not "God" or "fate", etc.).
>Philosophers to the contrary, such agents practically don't exist (...)
>People who claim they do exist are just telling ghost stories for educated
>audiences.

    Has it never occurred to the author of the above remarks that the
    selfsame `Aunt Hillary Effect' which the mechanical viewpoint claims is
    responsible for our own awareness could just as likely give rise to
    a `self-regulating, goal-directed' Meta-being ?

    Don't get me wrong. Objective scientific knowledge MUST attempt to build
    the simplest mechanical descriptions of all that it explains. After
    all, the very success of modern science started when it discarded the
    subjective worldview of the middle ages. Dualist theories of mind/body
    separation are of no scientific use whatsoever!

    It remains to be seen how deeply science will be able to explain the
    problems of awareness. Many feel as I do, that all they will find
    is the shrivelled skeleton of a soul which will have to be fleshed
    out by other disciplines (scientists -- read `Metaphysics' here).
    Perhaps people like me are living their last generation. I doubt it.

-michael