From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!utgpu!jupiter!morgan.ucs.mun.ca!nstn.ns.ca!news.cs.indiana.edu!att!pacbell.com!ames!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.ed Tue Nov 19 11:10:44 EST 1991
Article 1381 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!utgpu!jupiter!morgan.ucs.mun.ca!nstn.ns.ca!news.cs.indiana.edu!att!pacbell.com!ames!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.ed
u!paperboy.micro.umn.edu!cs.umn.edu!uc.msc.edu!shamash!map
>From: map@svl.cdc.com (Mark Peters)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Animal Intelligence vs Human Intelligence
Message-ID: <38038@shamash.cdc.com>
Date: 18 Nov 91 19:20:50 GMT
References: <37859@shamash.cdc.com> <1991Nov14.202756.18746@hilbert.cyprs.rain.com> <37995@shamash.cdc.com> <1991Nov15.231205.7555@milton.u.washington.edu>
Sender: usenet@shamash.cdc.com
Reply-To: map@svl.cdc.com
Organization: Control Data Corporation, Silicon Valley Operations
Lines: 42

In <1991Nov15.231205.7555@milton.u.washington.edu> forbis@milton.u.washington.edu (Gary Forbis) writes:

>In article <37995@shamash.cdc.com> map@svl.cdc.com writes:
>>The point is, nobody has to teach me
>>how to see, or how to hear, or how to taste,  I just do it.  I don't need a 
>>"method" to do these correctly, but I definitely need a method to think
>>correctly (e.g., logic), and I have to *choose* to learn and follow that
>>method.

>I doubt you mean "choose" unless you are using the word strangely.  Do you
>believe a switch chooses to conduct electricity when closed?  Can a computer
>"choose" which program to run?  There is no choice to make when one starts
>with the brain rather than the mind.  It is a matter of which to believe,
>your reduction of mind to brain or your mind.  One will tell you one thing
>and the other another.  I don't think one has to make an either/or choice
>(as if that is possible) but can view from either direction depending upon
>context.

I *do* mean to say that one must choose to learn thinking methods, and
choose to apply them.  When we all learned arithmetic in school, we
each had to deliberately focus our attention on what the teacher was
saying, rather than daydream about recess; we had to choose to do
our homework rather than to go outside to play.  As adults, we know
that thinking things out logically is the right way to solve a problem,
but we still have to choose to do that rather than to rely on appeals
to emotion.

Nobody can explicitly and deliberately cause a particular neuron to fire,
but we can and do cause brain activity when we think.  It's the *choice*
to think (or not) that is the causal root of all action, mental or   
physical, and this choice is the essence of free will.  From introspection 
alone, each of us can see that we *do* have the choice to think or not, and 
having decided to think, to choose the level of effort/focus expended.  

An electric switch doesn't "choose" to conduct electricity when closed,
and a computer doesn't "choose" which program to run, but then these
aren't living organisms with the power of free will - man *is* such an
organism.
--
Mark A. Peters                              ****** ======================
Control Data Corporation                    ****** == "What a save!!!" ==
Internet: map@svl.cdc.com                   ****** == "What an idea!!" ==


