Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!COYOTE.STANFORD.EDU!eyal
From: eyal@COYOTE.STANFORD.EDU (Eyal Mozes)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Free Will & Self-Awareness
Message-ID: <8805151907.AA01702@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 15 May 88 19:03:53 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 45

In article <434@aiva.ed.ac.uk> jeff@aiva.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton) writes:
>In article <8805092354.AA05852@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> eyal@COYOTE.STANFORD.EDU (Eyal Mozes) writes:
>>all the evidence I'm familiar with points to the fact that it's
>>always possible for a human being to control his thoughts by a
>>conscious effort.
>
>It is not always possible.  Think, if no simpler example will do, of
>obsessives.  They have thoughts that persist in turning up despite
>efforts to eliminate them.

First of all, even an obsessive can, at any given moment, turn his
thoughts away from the obsession by a conscious effort. The problem of
obsession is in that this conscious effort has to be much greater than
normal, and also in that, whenever the obsessive is not consciously
trying to avoid those thoughts, they do persist in turning up.

Second, an obsession is caused by anxiety and self-doubt, which are the
result of thinking the obsessive has done, or failed to do, in the
past. And, by deliberately training himself, over a period of time, in
more rational thinking, sometimes with appropriate professional help,
the obsessive can eliminate the excessive anxiety and self-doubt and
thus cure the obsession. So, indirectly, even the obsession itself is
under the person's volitional control.

>Or, consider when you start thinking about something.  An idea just
>occurs and you are thinking it: you might decide to think about
>something, but you could not have decided to decide, decided to
>decide to decide, etc. so at some point there was no conscious
>decision.

Of course, the point at which you became conscious (e.g. woke up from
sleep) was not a conscious decision. But as long as you are conscious,
it is your choice whether to let your thoughts wander by chance
association or to deliberately, purposefully control what you're
thinking about. And whenever you stop your thoughts from wandering and
start thinking on a subject of your choice, that action is by conscious
decision.

This is why I consider Ayn Rand's theory of free will to be such an
important achievement - because it is the only free-will theory
directly confirmed by what anyone can observe in his own thoughts.

	Eyal Mozes

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