Message 3/34
Date: 09-Mar-03 @ 11:25 AM Edit: 09-Mar-03 | 05:41 PM -
RE: free will
How can we have free will? It is more of a concept than an actuality. I don't mean this in a bad way. I am talking about Biology here. We have instincts and drives. Who we are and what we do is built on past experience coupled with our instincts and emotions. There are even many respected Psychoanalysts who believe that conscious thought itself is born of random unconscious signals and thoughts, and that the way we percieve consciousness is almost and illusion. Our conscious mind is only the tip of a very deep iceberg that we know very little about. We are highly eveolved socially. Living in the most complex society of any creature that we are aware of, hence our large brains and complex languages, but other than that we are not majorly different from any other mamal on this planet. The question that I'd like to know the answer to is do other animals feel that they are in control of their own lives? You would have thought so.
At any rate, truly free will can't exist within the minds of creatures of instinct, emotion and experience, such as ourselves. If anyone has been watching Derren Brown, or has ever learned about human Psychology, including areas such as Neurolinguistic Programming, then you will know what I mean.
Regards.
Steve.