Scientism and strict physical materialism is severely limited. Truth - at least those truths that matter in a human life - usually have nothing to do with empirical data and testable postulates. Most of the truths that really matter are those we make for ourselves, through morality, values, art, music, imagination, creativity.
The most important unresolved scientific questions, in my opinion.
- Thread starter Cypress
- Start date
AProudLefty
Black Kitty Ain't Happy
If it was an illusion, we wouldn't be aware.
Yes. But I am always dubious when I see strict scientific materialists say we are no different than other animals, nothing special about us, our existence is dictated by the scientific laws of Darwin and biology.
But then exceptions are carved out and acknowledged to make humans special because we uniquely have art, religion, abstract thought, imagination, aesthetic taste.
Many think Descartes instituted the idea that only science gives us proper knowledge. He never says this. His body and mind distinction does not mean the mind is reducible to body.
ZenMode
Well-known member
Deliberation is just a series of thoughts...none of which you control or had any conscious involvement in creating.
This is just a metaphysical theory.
I can tell you USE a lot of Marijuana, anyway....
We don't know that the Big Bang did happen.
It is a hypothesis crafted to explain observations that indicted an expanding universe. The only evidence to support the Big Bang is the expanding universe - which creates circular logic.
The Big Bang depends on the expanding universe, which is in question:
{Theoretical and observational challenges to standard cosmology such as the cosmological constant problem and tensions between cosmological model parameters inferred from different observations motivate the development and search of new physics. A less radical approach to venturing beyond the standard model is the simple mathematical reformulation of our theoretical frameworks underlying it.
While leaving physical measurements unaffected, this can offer a reinterpretation and even solutions of these problems. In this spirit, metric transformations are performed here that cast our Universe into different geometries. Of particular interest thereby is the formulation of cosmology in Minkowski space. Rather than an expansion of space, spatial curvature, and small-scale inhomogeneities and anisotropies, this frame exhibits a variation of mass, length and time scales across spacetime. Alternatively, this may be interpreted as an evolution of fundamental constants. As applications of this reframed cosmological picture, the naturalness of the cosmological constant is reinspected and promising candidates of geometric origin are explored for dark matter, dark energy, inflation and baryogenesis. An immediate observation thereby is the apparent absence of the cosmological constant problem in the Minkowski frame.
The formalism is also applied to identify new observable signatures of conformal inhomogeneities, which have been proposed as simultaneous solution of the observational tensions in the Hubble constant, the amplitude of matter fluctuations, and the gravitational lensing amplitude of cosmic microwave background anisotropies. These are found to enhance redshifts to distant galaxy clusters and introduce a mass bias with cluster masses inferred from gravitational lensing exceeding those inferred kinematically or dynamically.}
Anytime one starts speaking of "settled science" they are promoting faith, not science.
Science is a methodology - not a thing. Science doesn't say anything - it is a tool to organize inquiry in a logical and systematic manner.
We don't know that they are. You are shoe horning random data elements to reach a desired conclusion.
ZenMode
Well-known member
What is a metaphysical theory?
In the form: All X are Y.
Substitute "thought" for X. All thoughts are Y, brain events.
ZenMode
Well-known member
Where else can thoughts come from if not the brain?
The brain is only the physical condition of thought.
ZenMode
Well-known member
The question of the nature of thought is an interesting one, but not one that matters in a discussion of free will.
What matters is that we don't control our thoughts. We can't stop them from coming and we have no idea what they're going to be until they enter consciousness.
Last edited:
You are attributing agency to the brain.
ZenMode
Well-known member
I'm attributing functionality to the brain. Among other things the brain does, it generated thoughts and pushes them into consciousness. We don't know what our next thought is going to be - we can't think our thoughts before we think them. Thoughts just appear in consciousness, originating from some function of the brain.
No, I am asking what motivates the brain to act. That is what agency means, the cause of thought. Why does the brain want one thing rather than another?
ZenMode
Well-known member
Your brain is constantly working. Most of which we are completely unaware of. I couldn't possibly name everything that caused a brain to act. Outside stimuli are one. If I ask you to name 10 cities, your brain will start pushing the names of cities into your consciousness. You have no idea why those specific 10 cities appear in consciousness while hundreds of others don't.
One thing that is true is that your brain is constantly pushing thoughts into consciousness. If you don't believe me, try to stop thinking. You can't.
And the thoughts that show up in consciousness often come out of nowhere. You're watching an NFL game, totally engrossed in the action, and out of nowhere the thought "Did I close the garage door?" pops into consciousness. You didn't do anything to create that thought and there was nothing you could do to stop it from appearing in consciousness, yet it may very well cause you to decide to get up and check the garage door.
Easy, I would name the city I live in, where I was born. Places that are meaningful to me. Not a mysterious force or random.
Again, what motivates the brain to act. You never answered that question.
Whether you attribute agency to the brain or agency to the person, you still have agency.