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From: desjardins@h-sc1.UUCP (marie desjardins)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: freedom and reason (attn russ, rich, & laura)
Message-ID: <266@h-sc1.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 13-Apr-85 16:53:16 EST
Article-I.D.: h-sc1.266
Posted: Sat Apr 13 16:53:16 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 18-Apr-85 20:10:31 EST
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Organization: Harvard Univ. Science Center
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> The knowledge base, the current chemical state of the brain,
> results in a "resulting" decision.  The desire to (or not to) increase
> one's knowledge base (by asking questions) would also be determined by a
> current chemical state.  The willingness to believe and incorporate the
> acquired knowledge is determined similarly, as are any preonceptions and
> patterns which you might associate the new knowledge with.  Where is the
> "free will", the choice, in this?

Prove it.  Do you really know how the brain works?  Please publish this
information, so the rest of us can have the benefit of your supreme
knowledge.  

> Any judgment you make will be the result of a
> chemical process based on that state, and thus so will any action you take.
> If you're trying to say that because we use the word "mistake", we are
> implying "a bad choice that we made", and thus we must have free will,
> then I hope I've shown that that's erroneous.  If that's not what you're
> saying, I don't understand what you mean.

Come on, Rich.  You just don't know.  Neither does Laura.  It's fine to 
argue that "this may be the case," but unless you have proof of some kind,
you can't say "Any judgment you make WILL be the result of a chemical
process...."  From what I can tell, there is certainly room for uncertainty
in the brain (it's not as simple as a computer! :-)) and if there *were*
something in this universe akin to a soul, that nobody understands, then
it could well control that uncertainty.

	marie desjardins
	marie@harvard