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Freedom: An Impossible Reality by Raymond Tallis
Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2023 3:36 am
by Philosophy Now
This issue we consider ultimate human realities as Raymond Tallis has the intention of proving free will.
https://philosophynow.org/issues/149/Freedom_An_Impossible_Reality_by_Raymond_Tallis
Re: Freedom: An Impossible Reality by Raymond Tallis
Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2023 7:32 am
by attofishpi
RE reading Tallis' book, personally - not for me. I think the only way to get 'philosophical' about free will is via talking about neuroscience and QM. Sir Roger Penrose & Hameroff are interesting to read/utube on this area.
This term 'agency' gets on my nerves, why introduce a word when it is not required and philosophy tends to do this, when it adds extra definition to a word (that was not required) for the argument.
It's like a theortical physicist adding some extra 'dimension', or particle, multiverse etc ...WHERE we need to work from our basic grass roots and stop confusing our comprehension - of reality.
..btw there is an intelligence at the backbone to sub-atomic reality that we perceive (just to contradict myself
)
Re: Freedom: An Impossible Reality by Raymond Tallis
Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2023 5:53 pm
by owl of Minerva
Agency is a problematic word when it comes to free will, it is difficult to find a substitute. Its literal meaning is one through which something is accomplished: INSTRUMENTALITY, which does not exactly imply free will.
Mid-last century Sir John Eccles won a Noble prize for showing how chemical and electrical impulses, the ‘firing mechanism’ caused the movement of a finger.
He found that the source was still elusive until subsequent research showed that the ‘firing mechanism’ still took place with thought, even if the finger was not moved. As a result Eccles’ view was that the physiology of movement proved that we have freedom of will, that something outside of a purely mechanical process is involved in our actions. He concluded that we have the mental ability to decide to act. if done on an elementary level—-moving a finger—-it followed that it could be done with more complex levels of human action and interaction.