Re: [OT]: Memes Vs. Free Will

From: Guy Macon (http://www.guymacon.com)
Date: 09/27/04 

Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 01:50:34 -0700

Clifford Heath <cjh-nospam@nospaManagesoft.com> says...
>
>Guy Macon <http://www.guymacon.com> wrote:

>>Robert Monsen <rcsurname@comcast.net> says...
>>
>>>Actually, there is very good experimental evidence to suggest that
>>>consiousness is an illusion we generate after the fact. It has nothing
>>>to do with choice, because it happens moments after the fact. We make a
>>>choice, then our brain creates the sensation of our conscious mind
>>>having made the choice.
>>
>> So what made the choice? The liver?
>
>The habits, the activation states of which are refered to as emotion.

Habit and emotion reside in the brain. So when you say
 
  "We make a choice, then our brain creates the sensation
   of our conscious mind having made the choice."

Aren't you are really saying

  "Our brain makes a choice, then our brain tells our brain
   that our brain made the choice."

?

>Man is not a rational being, but a rationalising one.
>
>Emotion occurs in all mammals BTW, but most don't have the need or
>ability to explain it. I've graphically observed grief in rabbits,
>for example. Emotions are related to a section of the brain which
>developed with mammals over the reptilian core, and which provides
>nurturing behaviour and many other adaptive traits necessary to
>mammalian survival.
>
>The more rapid and automatic a response is, the more likely it has
>sprung from a lower level in the brain - though the higher levels
>can train the lower ones to create rational but pre-conscious
>behaviour - like playing the piano, riding a bike, etc. Afterwards,
>we provide a reason for the behaviour "I steered left to dodge that
>rock" - but try to ride with your arms crossed to the opposite
>handlebar! You just can't do it under conscious control.

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