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The unsolved problem of "free will"

The what, on Ed's green Earth, have you been arguing so far??
Obviously I have been arguing with your previous position, not your new position. Here is what you asked me to agree with:
Once again here is the view I'm proposing:

The concept of whether someone has "free will" hinges, in my understanding, on the idea that there must be at least one someone who has this ability.

Correct so far?
And I agreed. Now I find that you meant (but somehow failed to state) a "supernatural" someone. In other words bait and switch.

So if you had asked
Once again here is the view I'm proposing:

The concept of whether someone has "free will" hinges, in my understanding, on the idea that there must be at least one supernatural someone who has this ability.

Correct so far?
I would have said, no I don't agree so far. The concept of free will does not hinge on a supernatural someone who has this ability.
 
Obviously I have been arguing with your previous position, not your new position. Here is what you asked me to agree with:

And I agreed. Now I find that you meant (but somehow failed to state) a "supernatural" someone. In other words bait and switch.

So if you had asked

I would have said, no I don't agree so far. The concept of free will does not hinge on a supernatural someone who has this ability.
I have had the same position throughout this debate. I've already explained why I made the statement you refer to.
 
It doesn't matter when discussing the topic of this thread, i.e. "free will". Otherwise it is of interest.
It obviously matters if you are quibbling about a definition that uses the concept.
It is physical in the sense that it the result of physical processes.
OK, so now remember you asked how I defined "voluntary" in terms of deterministic and I said that it was a deterministic process within subjective experience. You asked what that meant. Obviously you simply had a niggly semantic quibble. Fine. If a subjective experience is a result of a physical process, then a voluntary action is a deterministic process that results in a subjective experience.

Do you now understand what I mean by "voluntary" in terms of determinism?
 
I have had the same position throughout this debate. I've already explained why I made the statement you refer to.
Can you explain, then, why you introduced the concept of the supernatural into the thread when nobody had suggested that there was such a thing and the original poster had stated explicitly a number of times that this was not what he meant?

What relevance does your position have to the argument?
 
It obviously matters if you are quibbling about a definition that uses the concept.

OK, so now remember you asked how I defined "voluntary" in terms of deterministic and I said that it was a deterministic process within subjective experience. You asked what that meant. Obviously you simply had a niggly semantic quibble. Fine. If a subjective experience is a result of a physical process, then a voluntary action is a deterministic process that results in a subjective experience.

Do you now understand what I mean by "voluntary" in terms of determinism?
Sorry, no I don't. All physical processes in the brain either result in a subjective experience, or they don't. These processes may be caused or they may ultimately be non-caused. In either case, there is no "voluntary" bit.
 
Can you explain, then, why you introduced the concept of the supernatural into the thread when nobody had suggested that there was such a thing and the original poster had stated explicitly a number of times that this was not what he meant?

What relevance does your position have to the argument?
Because the arguments being made against my position seemed to indicate supernatural viewpoints.
 
Sorry, no I don't. All physical processes in the brain either result in a subjective experience, or they don't. These processes may be caused or they may ultimately be non-caused. In either case, there is no "voluntary" bit.
Define what you mean by "voluntary" in this context then.
 
Because the arguments being made against my position seemed to indicate supernatural viewpoints.
Well for example I argued against your equivalence of a hurricane and brain saying that they might operate under different physical principles.

How on earth does that indicate anything supernatural? Indicate which arguments indicated something supernatural.

That is the problem. You and Atheist came here hoping to do battle with supernaturalists. Unfortunately you found none here, so you tried to invent them.
 
Well for example I argued against your equivalence of a hurricane and brain saying that they might operate under different physical principles.

How on earth does that indicate anything supernatural? Indicate which arguments indicated something supernatural.

That is the problem. You and Atheist came here hoping to do battle with supernaturalists. Unfortunately you found none here, so you tried to invent them.
Are we in agreement, then?
 
Any dictionary definition you wish.
Let me get this straight. You know for a fact that there is no voluntary component to our brain processes. But you don't have any specific definition of "voluntary" in mind when making this claim. Right?
 
It must be one to one otherwise when the muse gave the same title to the artist twice then he'd paint a different picture - which is contrary to the given behaviour for the artist (he must always paint the same picture given the same title).
You didn't answer my question. You stated that he would alway paint the same picture for a given title.

You did not state that he could not paint the same picture for two given titles. This would be necessary information if we are to say that the art critic can go back from painting to title. Is this now part of the argument?
Anything you wish - ..."
Anything I wish? It is your argument, you should state whether this is consistent with what you mean. You introduce the concept of paint being thrown at the canvas and you have defined three players muse, artist and art critic. Which one throws the paint at the canvas?
Yes. Yes I would. You would just fail to recognise the isomorphism. The fact that the description failed to resonate an emotional reaction in your brain ("but I'M A REAL BOY!") doesn't change the facts as written down.
That is just another way of saying the same thing. If it does not resonate then it does not convey the information. And incidentally "how it feels to eat a peach" consists of more than just the emotional information, you are just taking "feel" in the wrong sense.

If I had never eaten a peach I would never know what it is like to eat a peach if I just relied on the mathematical model.

So either "how it feels to eat a peach" is not information (why not?) or there is always at least one piece of information about the physical system that the mathematical model cannot convey.
Demonstrate the existence of something you cannot describe. (Of course if you do so you tacitly say you really do not comprehend the paradox being presented here).
That is not logic. You claim that there does not exist any x such that x is not describable. Yet when I ask you to demonstrate the truth of your claim you respond by asking me to demonstrate the falsity of your claim. That is not how it works, you made the claim, you demonstrate it is true.
It's there - you just don't recognise the paradox inherent in your own words as you continue to try and say defining the undefinable isn't defining it.
Semantic dodge - I use it myself sometimes. So for example when somebody told me that you cannot represent a non-computable number using natural numbers I said - yes I can, look:
Code:
a non-computable number
Thus I refute Turing. But it is as nonsensical as saying that applying the label "undefinable" is somehow defining the undefinable.
I would like to know how you would prevent me inferring a mathematical isomorphism for a non-arbitrary supernatural system - I really would.
First define supernatural. If you define supernatural in terms of natural, then also define natural.

I would be fascinated to hear a definition of natural that excludes something that has a mathematical isomorphism.
 
And, yes, I said the "I" was a process generated by the brain. As it is. But it a process in the same way that a picture is a process generated by a camera.

An interesting analogy that gets into some of the cool stuff of psychology.

A camera is generally a passive device for the recording of photons.

The perceptions are rather different, visual perception is more like a generated photo that is created from only partial data. So more like a digital reconstruction of a photo that is blurry in places, missing in others and only partly colored.

The "I" is a learned label.
 
Let me get this straight.

1. There is no "I"
2. processes in the brain generate the "I"

Right? So if there is no "I", what are the processes in the brain generating?

So there is an "I", the "I" is whatever it is that you say the processes of the brain are generating.

But why make this so complicated? Of course there is a you - just look in the mirror. That homo sapien is you and contains the brain that is generating your experiences. How much more of a "you" could there be than that?

great question.

There are the myriad of processes of experience. But there is a confaltion in the learned label of "I", there is a myriad of processes that we convinietly label as the 'I'. But is it verbal cognition, is it memory. Or is it as the qualia worshipers have it "an undefinable sense of being".

It is more like the ship of Pyraxis. It is a ship that is constantly changing, each piece being recreated and built again on a regular basis. So while it looks like the original ship, it is not.

The "I" is easily defined as the aggregate of the human body and it's processes.
 
You didn't answer my question. You stated that he would alway paint the same picture for a given title.

You did not state that he could not paint the same picture for two given titles. This would be necessary information if we are to say that the art critic can go back from painting to title. Is this now part of the argument?

Then I will introduce another concept to satisfy you: our art critic and muse are both normalised in the sense that if we allowed a set of titles to describe the same artwork we could simply create a new titling system where a single title could describe the set - this would be the normal form of the title.

Anything I wish? It is your argument, you should state whether this is consistent with what you mean. You introduce the concept of paint being thrown at the canvas and you have defined three players muse, artist and art critic. Which one throws the paint at the canvas?

UGH - why are you persisting with asking about an inconsequential detail? I am telling you to invent any persona you like: it is a generalised scenario, not a specific one. The point here is that we have created a new piece of art in a way we think cannot be produced by the artist because of the restrictions we have placed on him. The question is then simple: is this piece of art part of our gallery?

That is just another way of saying the same thing. If it does not resonate then it does not convey the information.

Correction: it does not resonate the information to you.

That's just equivalent to saying, "If I bury my head in the sand I don't need to listen to what you are presenting to me therefore I can say it is invalid."

And incidentally "how it feels to eat a peach" consists of more than just the emotional information, you are just taking "feel" in the wrong sense.

So what other information would you like to introduce which is unrepresentable?

If I had never eaten a peach I would never know what it is like to eat a peach if I just relied on the mathematical model.

You argument was about representations - not subjective realisations.

So again: is there anything that cannot be represented about the nature of eating a peach with respect to any given human in a formal system?

This is not a question asking you if you have a concept of eating a peach or not - just whether or not you recognise the description as relating the physical causalities involved. (Assuming you accept that you are a being that cannot escape the physical).

So either "how it feels to eat a peach" is not information (why not?)

In your case, from your argument, it would not be information because you require that you have an experience of the existential quality being described. As such it may as well be in Chinese for all that the symbols matter in conveying anything. If you are able to think in the abstract however then why single out the experience of 'eating a peach' as significant? Surely you could point to something trivially expressible in mathematics which would equally be unable to convey information about your experience of it? Say, the effect of a single photon on your retina?

You can reject the notion of reality being representable if you wish but then I would like to be informed in advance so I know that there is no possible way for me to persuade you of anything: since I am somewhat limited in this physical reality to being only able to demonstrate anything to your system by means of representations.

or there is always at least one piece of information about the physical system that the mathematical model cannot convey.

That is incompleteness of the uninteresting kind: you are asserting that some more powerful system of representation exists.

If you want to have a bash at demonstrating have at it.

That is not logic. You claim that there does not exist any x such that x is not describable. Yet when I ask you to demonstrate the truth of your claim you respond by asking me to demonstrate the falsity of your claim. That is not how it works, you made the claim, you demonstrate it is true.

*Sigh* This isn't empirical hour; this is metalogical hour.

Either way you're the one asserting that indescribable things exist. I am not claiming they do not - I am claiming that attempting to show they do will lead you to a fatal paradox. Hence I am asking you to attempt it in order that you may demonstrate this to yourself. It is from the paradox we conclude that indescribable things cannot exist - or rather we conclude that if it exists it can be described.

Semantic dodge - I use it myself sometimes. So for example when somebody told me that you cannot represent a non-computable number using natural numbers I said - yes I can, look:
Code:
a non-computable number
Thus I refute Turing. But it is as nonsensical as saying that applying the label "undefinable" is somehow defining the undefinable.

No - it's paradoxical - not nonsensical. It is a perfectly sensible statement. This is the whole damn point.

First define supernatural.

I'm using your definition remember?

If you define supernatural in terms of natural, then also define natural.

I already have: that's where you introduced supernatural remember?

Your claim is that the supernatural cannot be represented naturally. Your claim: demonstrate it is so.

I would be fascinated to hear a definition of natural that excludes something that has a mathematical isomorphism.

That would be trivially uninteresting: I would simply create a system that lacks the ability to express all the things natural numbers can.

There's nothing fascinating in pointing out that a system of logic less powerful than a number theory cannot describe things number theory can.
 
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The ability to make decisions is the very reason computers are so useful. A computer without an "if ...then..." ability would not be a computer.

The value judgement of safety isa not quite that cut and dried. It involves a lot of associative reasoning(IE this is similar to this), the car is moving similar to objects that move at this spped, it will approach the intersection at this rate, I can cross at this rate, etc.

But essentialy the same, the programming is a little more fluid and variable.
 

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