Thread: What is consciousness?

I have emailed the guy who talks about all this stuff in waking life. I asked him a few questions about free will and in his reply he said something interesting. We may not even really understand the question we are asking. We both agree that absolute determinism and absolute indeterminism can't be completely true. Being human it is hard not to think that we are somehow seperate in mind and body but we also shy away from an explanation like that because we have no physical scientific proof.

We have a need to rationalize everything around us and in my opinion we try to do that even with things that are way beyond our scope of understanding.

Originally Posted by Waterknight

. We both agree that absolute determinism and absolute indeterminism can't be completely true. Being human it is hard not to think that we are somehow seperate in mind and body but we also shy away from an explanation like that because we have no physical scientific proof.

Perhaps the word you are looking for is compatibilism, the belief that free will and determinism are not dichotomies and are compatible ideas. I think for the time being it is pragmatically useful to believe in free will because for instance how could we prosecute a murderer if he was destined by the laws of physics to commit the crime? How could he be held responsible for something he had no control over?

I dont think "being human" is the cause of our inclination to substance dualism, the separation of the mind and body has more of a religious/spiritual agenda than anything.

Originally Posted by stormcrow

how could we prosecute a murderer if he was destined by the laws of physics to commit the crime?

Because maintaining and enforcing a law against murder will--by the laws of physics--cause there to be less murders in the long run. Free will, as far as I'm concerned, is irrelevant.

Consciousness is the result of brain activity. It actually arises from the executive functions of the brain.