View Single Post
  #176 (permalink)  
Old 12-04-2007, 07:30 PM
Paul C. Anagnostopoulos Paul C. Anagnostopoulos is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 1,020
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian
A choice not influenced by reasons or desires. In the thought experiment I can turn left or right. But I have no idea which way will take me home. So I make an arbitrary choice to turn left. I make an arbitrary choice there and then, and therefore it would seem that prior physical states of the Universe, and indeed prior psychological states did not dictate or even influence my choice.
Oh, please. You have absolutely no idea whatsoever how it is you made that choice when you got to the intersection. Just because no desire popped into your conscious mind at the time does not mean that it was a random choice.

Quote:
And come to think of it this is yet further proof that we are not physical. Any physical thing, a robot or whatever, just follows physical laws or algorithms. It could not make an arbitrary choice.
What it appears to prove is that you somehow believe that all your nonarbitrary decisions are fully conscious. No one believes that.

~~ Paul
Reply With Quote