Comments on: Joseph LeDoux: Inside the Brain, Behind the Music, Part 4

By: Benjie

Benjie — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 05:14:17 +0000

I don’t understand, Joe, you know the answer to the question that you pretend to ask, as you have stated so in your music without question marks, only mocking the listener.

So, why continue with research that propagates a system that allows the few to surreptitiously manage the many? Where does this authority come from?

Is lack of awareness of the deception justification?

By: DETERMINISM: the principle that all events are planned and unavoidble — Jedword

DETERMINISM: the principle that all events are planned and unavoidble — Jedword — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:28:00 +0000

[...] Graphic Credit: thebeautifulbrain.com [...]

By: Ryan Shirk

Ryan Shirk — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:46:55 +0000

Humans came to be in accordance with causal necessity. Their sense of self is defined by their object-relations. “A self is a repertoire of behavior appropriate to a given set of contingencies.” (B.F. Skinner) Who’s nature is defined by those relations, whatever “control” the self could exert would only be in accordance with its composition. Which itself is not free from determinacy. But humans believe they are free, and remain blind to the ties that bind them. The mystical pursuit is to undo these bonds through psychological self-mastery. A cutting away of determinate processes within the mind. Though this process is always driven by an equal determinacy to free oneself. Eventually, one must choose to align themselves with something, cutting all the ties leaves one empty and void. People will generally want to align with what is true, with truth, and make it their determining attachment. But all this is easier said than done, and infinitely harder if one isn’t even aware they are not free already.

By: Ryan Shirk

Ryan Shirk — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:41:13 +0000

“While these issues are not so easy for materialist-inclined brain researchers either, at least we have the advantage of being able to work within one realm, the material realm, rather than having to try to forge a relation between two realms (material and mental).”

This is like opting to suffer from Simultanagnosia.

By: Ryan Shirk

Ryan Shirk — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:32:30 +0000

A causal loop is not “downward causation”. Free-will would violate the law of conservation mass-energy. Though mind may become conscious, and activity may occur ‘in’ consciousness. This does not mean that consciousness violates any physical laws or logical necessity. The lack of free-will is the source of understanding. Nor does the Bible ever teach us we have it. Else why does it read “Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel fitted to honor and another fitted to destruction”? And why does it say “Therefor it is not of him that runneth nor of him that willeth but of God that sheweth mercy.” Or “God caused their hearts to become calloused”. Rather, there is a lot of believing whatever one wants to be the case.

By: Phil Fate

Phil Fate — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 17:54:19 +0000

There is much less here than meets the eye.