tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post3929877496451375723..comments2023-10-10T08:02:18.073-04:00Comments on Rationally Speaking: From the naturalism workshop, part IIUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-88640198212374092532012-11-20T17:21:47.720-05:002012-11-20T17:21:47.720-05:00Amazing you can't reply at all to what I write...Amazing you can't reply at all to what I write, except to play up with rhetoric and abuse.DaveKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10588445807090485179noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-91889740297240382062012-11-20T17:21:05.308-05:002012-11-20T17:21:05.308-05:00That's not a definition, its a errant mess, as...That's not a definition, its a errant mess, as explained by me repeatedly.DaveKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10588445807090485179noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-43869918938668086542012-11-04T17:55:57.578-05:002012-11-04T17:55:57.578-05:00Good points, but to save time, my reply is to have...Good points, but to save time, my reply is to have a read of the free book here and think again www.thehumandesign.netDaveKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10588445807090485179noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-41482782438050760182012-11-03T23:30:58.707-04:002012-11-03T23:30:58.707-04:00Fortunately, confidence comes in degrees. Equally ...Fortunately, confidence comes in degrees. Equally fortunately, we can have confidence in some intuitions without having equivalent confidence in all of them. Even if volition, or for that matter 'free' volition, is not a natural kind, there may have been evolutionary benefits to thinking in terms of categories like 'free action' and 'constrained action' as though they were very sharply defined. And we can reconstruct more sophisticated versions of these categories for legal or biomedical or philosophical purposes. But our intuitions rarely, if ever, confer upon us direct and unmediated access to their own neurological underpinnings. There's no evolutionary reason for them to do so.Robby Bensingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578746611329967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-1462942664086890432012-11-03T19:09:47.119-04:002012-11-03T19:09:47.119-04:00As I said above and elsewhere, your answer is in t...As I said above and elsewhere, your answer is in the evolution of an anatomy that suits its environment. We have well demonstrated capacities for rationality and processing of environmental realities (even though these are our own constructs). 'Intuition' evolved, and we either have confidence in its rational use by humans or we do not, based on past evidence. You, apparently, do not.DaveKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10588445807090485179noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-48634001242506732132012-11-03T13:32:47.625-04:002012-11-03T13:32:47.625-04:00Gadfly: I'm not saying we have no intuitions a...Gadfly: I'm not saying we have no intuitions about these cases. I'm just skeptical that any reasonably simple and objective criterion can capture those intuitions. You've provided no such criterion, beyond 'just assume our intuitions are basically right.' Hence I don't see much of a point in importing a gerrymandered or frequently unintuitive notion of 'free will' into psychological or neurological discourse. Possibly even our concept 'volition' only ultimately captures a species of brain activity in a very approximate way.Robby Bensingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578746611329967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-69739689623144936522012-11-02T23:34:35.353-04:002012-11-02T23:34:35.353-04:00I wouldn't separate free will and volition. Th...I wouldn't separate free will and volition. The exercise of sufficient free choice by presenting ourselves with a range of options is just volition applied to options as one process. We present sufficient options to oursleves to be considered free to decide, and we voluntariy act upon them. Thought precedes action and responsibility follows.DaveKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10588445807090485179noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-2220617375380003802012-11-02T09:52:40.637-04:002012-11-02T09:52:40.637-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Robby Bensingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578746611329967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-56298944013675908432012-10-31T23:33:35.152-04:002012-10-31T23:33:35.152-04:00Given that our volition involves both emotional an...Given that our volition involves both emotional and rational elements, a lessening of a range of emotional sensitivity, analysis, insight, etc., a "flattening," I think would be seen by most all people as a constraint.<br /><br />That said, given that I said some changes could be "liberating," I don't know why you have an objection to the other side of the coin, that some changes that seem constraining ... may actually be constraining. Folks wisdom or whatever isn't ALWAYS wrong, you know.Gadflyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13075757287807731373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-84344906930401653012012-10-31T21:16:14.832-04:002012-10-31T21:16:14.832-04:00What is it about the flattened affect, precisely, ...What is it about the flattened affect, precisely, that makes this a 'constraint'?<br /><br />If the assumption is simply that a reduced range of behavior or experience implies a reduction of one's freedom, then would you say that a tumor that increased the volatility and diversity of one's emotions would constitute an enhancement of one's freedom?<br /><br />And what if I read a book that causes me to change my outlook on life, depriving me of a lot of life's simple joys and flattening my affect? Is the book (or the informtion I gained from the book) a constraint on my freedom? If not, in what generically relevant way does the book case differ from the tumor case?Robby Bensingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578746611329967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-21141300311687162332012-10-31T16:28:18.743-04:002012-10-31T16:28:18.743-04:00Some very interesting thoughts, starting with the ...Some very interesting thoughts, starting with the "typicalness" issue. But, not speaking for Massimo's POV, just me, I think "constraint" can legitimately be used. For example, take another brain tumor, that has clearly flattened the patient's range of emotional affect vs. pre-tumor mental state. That person is "constrained." Therefore, while "liking" or "disliking" an effect may at sometimes lead to a judgment call, not always.<br /><br />The "view from nowhere"? I've commented on another thread that this, like free will, should perhaps be approached in a manner of degrees rather than an absolute nonexistence.<br /><br />That said, I'm with you on the paragraph in parentheses, but for partially different reasons. I think we make our judgments on the desirability, or not, of certain types of freedom or control based on a short-term temporal focus. Ergo, per the pseudo-Chinese proverb with the repetitive phrase at the last line of each event, "Could be good, could be bad," we don't really know on issue of volition, often.<br /><br />And, I'm with you on the last paragraph about the theological influence that still seems to pervade traditional discussions of free will. Heck, Massimo himself has admitted here before that the "responsibility" issue is a driver, for him, on his stance on this issue. And, with that, I once again recommend a reading of Kaufman's "Without Guilt and Justice." http://www.amazon.com/Without-Justice-Walter-Arnold-Kaufmann/product-reviews/0385286961/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescendingGadflyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13075757287807731373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-29771161241088209792012-10-31T12:34:00.682-04:002012-10-31T12:34:00.682-04:00Your and Dennett's teleological response to th...Your and Dennett's teleological response to the childhood trauma and tumor cases strikes me as strange, because it is not clear to me that bad or harmful influences amount to "more constraints." As determinists, we have to be especially careful about what we mean by one cause being more of a "constraint" than another.<br /><br />Someone who's suffered trauma or has a tumor might be less predictable than an ordinary human. They might exhibit more varied behavior on average. And they might have, in total, fewer distinct causal influences on their behaviors. Yet you call them "more constrained," presumably on the grounds that they have less desirable or less ordinary constraints than do most people. A visual stimulus and a brain tumor can both determine (given my prior brain state) that my volitional drives will respond in a specific way, but we are more inclined to call the latter a 'constraint,' either because it is less biologically typical or simply because it conflicts with the expected aims of ordinary individuals.<br /><br />I suspect typicalness is a red herring here. If a random brain tumor caused me to be much more compassionate, we'd intuit that my freedom is diminished. But if I instead put a mechanical implant in my brain to produce the same effect by the same neurological pathways, to improve my moral character, it would be far less clear that my 'free will' ends up hindered, even though implants are far less biologically normal than tumors. The biggest factor causing me to think of the tumor but not the implant as a 'constraint' is that the former is framed as undesirable; but what if medical science advanced to the point that I could use highly targeted radiation to create a benign tumor serving the same function as the implant? The assumption that behavior-modifying tumors constitute 'constraints' might evaporate overnight.<br /><br />So our liking a determiner seems to play a big role in whether we view it as a 'constraint.' But since our desires and preferences are themselves determined by our brains, and can be altered or manipulated, there seems to be no 'view from nowhere' from which to stably and consistently sort the desirable influences from the constraints. Moreover, in the process we seem to have committed ourselves to saying that one is more free the more attractive are one's chains; a complete determiner of our actions makes us freer than an indeterministic (e.g., metaphysically probabilistic) antecedent, provided we (or some idealized human evaluator) like it more. Counterintuitiveness of this sort is a much bigger problem for compatibilists who rely heavily on the intuitiveness of their account to justify their very use of terms like 'free will.'<br /><br />(Personally, I think our intuitions about what kind of 'freedom' or 'control' we want break down and yield no clear results in many cases. Judging by my own intuitions and anecdotal encounters, the evidence that folk psychology is wholly deterministic seems to me rather mixed. The apparent lack of a unified concept is a lot of what inclines me toward a radical Nagel-style incompatibilism / noncognitivism.)<br /><br />The problem of sorting 'freeing' determiners from 'constraining' determiners suggests to me that 'free will,' at best, unhelpfully conflates a neural system's predictability, its executive (in particular, deliberative) involvement in behavior, its biologically 'normal' functioning, its tendency to achieve its own desired aims, and its tendency to achieve 'normal' human aims. These are all very different variables, and binding them up into a single package to try to appease and adequately mirror a culturally particular (and indeed substantially theological) decision-making discourse seems to me unenlightening, if not actively misleading. Perhaps I'll feel less uneasy when people follow your suggestion and more decisively switch over from 'free will' to 'volition.'Robby Bensingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578746611329967989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-45819032768129467972012-10-30T19:51:11.772-04:002012-10-30T19:51:11.772-04:00Having read more of the background on the definiti...Having read more of the background on the definition of emergence in the earlier posts, it only reinforces for me that the notion of algorithmic complexity has to be at the heart of any rigorous definition of emergence (at least a necessary if not sufficient definitional element). <br /><br />Singularities are just one clue that we won't find compact (in space and/or time) algorithms that can predict phenomena from constituent parts. Hyper-sensitivity to initial conditions (chaos) and the curse of dimensionality are other drivers. As a practical rule of thumb, whenever someone says we "can in principle" predict collective behaviors but "in practice can't" it just implies that algorithmic complexity is high.<br /><br />Of course, as others have hinted at in the comments, there is an asymmetry that should be recognized: one may not be able to prove that there does not exist a more compressible algorithm to predict a phenomenon; however, one can definitively prove that it does exist by inventing it.<br /><br />Algorithmic complexity may not be sufficient, however, for an appealing definition of emergence since simply not being able to predict collective behaviors in a algorithmically compact way from elements would include phenomena that we may not want to categorize as truly emergent (e.g., the N body problem). So this may may be where we also apply the idea of basing emergence on the condition of needing to use very different predictive models with respect to the collective vs.the elements, which is mentioned in the previous posts/comments. <br /><br />And in both parts of such a compound definition, 1) algorithmic complexity of predicting the behaviors of the whole, and 2) the difference in the types of predictive algorithmic techniques that are applied between the whole and the parts, it is a matter of degree, and in principle could be measured. Such metrics might allow us to actually rank phenomena on an emergence scale rather than forcing us to either place a phenomenon in the emergent category or not.<br /><br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-69902513577958330742012-10-30T16:36:28.848-04:002012-10-30T16:36:28.848-04:00Massimo, you need to see if you can't get a &q...Massimo, you need to see if you can't get a "like" feature here ... your most recent comment to Dave is definitely worthy.Gadflyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13075757287807731373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-5014765759077763432012-10-30T15:45:44.230-04:002012-10-30T15:45:44.230-04:00I have long said something vaguely similar to Denn...I have long said something vaguely similar to Dennett in some ways, but definitely different in others. I agree with the degrees of "free will" idea, but think that, because of that, we need to go beyond the idea of "free will vs. determinism." Related to that, and this post of Massimo's, I also mention that we need to do more with the idea of free will as an emergent property; this idea of degrees ties in with that, too. And, I hint that (per Kaufmann) we maybe need to move beyond being locked into the idea of "responsibility," too: http://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2012/01/mu-to-free-will.htmlGadflyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13075757287807731373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-9678738924136169062012-10-30T15:00:54.673-04:002012-10-30T15:00:54.673-04:00Matthias,
> Wouldn't follow from this that...Matthias,<br /><br />> Wouldn't follow from this that the higher levels could have for example probabilistic laws while the lower level could have deterministic laws? <<br /><br />Yes, it would. In general, I think that above fundamental physics pretty much everything becomes probabilistic.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09099460671669064269noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-75740589507890059572012-10-30T13:53:14.290-04:002012-10-30T13:53:14.290-04:00Massimo,
I would agree with you that new propertie...Massimo,<br />I would agree with you that new properties come into existence because of the lower level properties. But once they emerged, don't the higher level properties follow also new emerged regularities? Wouldn't follow from this that the higher levels could have for example probabilistic laws while the lower level could have deterministic laws?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-77544622963250263192012-10-30T10:55:17.962-04:002012-10-30T10:55:17.962-04:00Dave,
> There is no definition of emergence. &...Dave,<br /><br />> There is no definition of emergence. <<br /><br />It's in this post:<br /><br />http://rationallyspeaking.blogspot.com/2012/10/essays-on-emergence-part-iii.html<br /><br />The 6-point definition in the middle.<br /><br />kevin,<br /><br />> Pray tell what are these exceptional human behaviors and where did they originate genetically and ecologically? <<br /><br />Don't know about the latter, but you are using one such ability: language.<br /><br />> Ah, so censorship, not because the ideas contradict your beliefs but because of "style." <<br /><br />Dude, it's my blog, if you don't like the rules, you can go write somewhere else. The internet is vast...Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09099460671669064269noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-1546660012575456002012-10-29T17:37:31.723-04:002012-10-29T17:37:31.723-04:00Dear Massimo,
now I am property of google and I´m ...Dear Massimo,<br />now I am property of google and I´m looking forward for your thoughts on the above. Thank you for posting representatively.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-12278224920938750072012-10-29T16:56:30.839-04:002012-10-29T16:56:30.839-04:00[from Matthias]
"New properties come into ex...[from Matthias]<br /><br />"New properties come into existence in complex systems, but they still come into existence because of the lower level properties of individual components of the system. Think of "temperature": it requires a large number of particles, as single particles don't have temperature, just kinetic energy."<br /><br />I would agree with you that new properties come into existence because of the lower level properties. But once they emerged, don't the higher level properties follow also new emerged regularities? From that would follow that the higher levels could have for example probabilistic laws while the lower level could have deterministic laws?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09099460671669064269noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-8255124288682946942012-10-29T15:58:36.245-04:002012-10-29T15:58:36.245-04:00Human exceptionalism is an ideological sales scam....Human exceptionalism is an ideological sales scam. The brain did not invent a separate set of processes for different kinds of behavior and for a different species.<br /><br />Why is there no report of the brain researchers participating or any brain research being cited?<br /><br />Higher order concepts and natural language are being abandoned by brain research. The HOC include: decision making, emotions, consciousness, choice, personality, etc. But apparently all present would rather speculate about physics than learn some brain physiology.<br /><br />All matters related to behavior, in humans, by definition are a branch of psychiatry. In other species animal ethology. Physics, philosophy, etc are no more relevant in discussing brain processes than for any other physiological and medically based topic. How much is philosophy and physics relevant to knowledge of other organs of the body? Zero.<br /><br />The brain is just another organ of the body. duhAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-90494550492681647922012-10-29T15:35:34.997-04:002012-10-29T15:35:34.997-04:00brain4biz,
> the philosophers-ideologues-theol...brain4biz,<br /><br />> the philosophers-ideologues-theologians are sure hung up on "morality." <<br /><br />There wasn't a single theologian, and quite a number of scientists, at the workshop (including neuroscientists, btw). What the hell are you talking about?<br /><br />> Here is a single fact we all need to organize around - behavior appears to be triggered in 150 milliseconds <<br /><br />If you are referring to the Libet experiments, they have demonstrably nothing to do with the sort of deliberate thinking we are talking about.<br /><br />Kevin,<br /><br />> the best brain science: behavior appears to be driven in 150 milliseconds completely reactively and unconsciously - by what is called "survival circuits." <<br /><br />That is not at all what "the best brain science" says. That figure is limited to specific types of non-conscious, reactive, behaviors. Human beings are more complicated than that.<br /><br />> The lack of any brain science in this session is conspicuous <<br /><br />Except that there was no such lack. David Poeppel, for one, is a neuroscientist, and that's also Simon DeDeo's area. <br /><br />> You would think Dawkins, at least, would have raised his hand early and demanded some brain research data. duh <<br /><br />Yes, just like I would have thought you read the report before commenting. Duh.<br /><br />daedalus2u,<br /><br />> Except we know that the “self” of today is not self-identical to the “self” of yesterday. <<br /><br />Of course, but that's no counter-argument. Just because something changes over time it doesn't mean that something doesn't exist.<br /><br />> Why would there not be cognitive illusions or agency perception illusions <<br /><br />There are, they are just not as universal as you seem to think.<br /><br />> Is there an alternative for agency detection? <<br /><br />Of course there is, plenty of animals do without it.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09099460671669064269noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-76322422062702640362012-10-29T14:39:29.109-04:002012-10-29T14:39:29.109-04:00Except we know that the “self” of today is not sel...Except we know that the “self” of today is not self-identical to the “self” of yesterday. We know that many brain cells have died, been replaced (or not), new connections made, old connections lost. We know that there has been change, even if we can't perceive it. Other people can perceive changes in us, even if we can't. <br /><br />If we know there has been change, but we are unable to perceive that change, the problem must be with our perception. We know that there are optical illusions; artifacts of our evolved visual pattern recognition systems. Why would there not be cognitive illusions or agency perception illusions; artifacts of our evolved agency recognition systems which evolved to be biased because false negative detection of predators is much more costly than false positives. Hyperactive agency detection is the basis for the perception of supernatural agents causing weather, crop growth, earth quakes and the demons many perceive to haunt the world. Why would our self-perception be immune to hyperactive agency detection? <br /><br />The usual way to perceive something is to use pattern recognition and compare the thing to be perceived to a template. That is how visual perception works, the “templates” are generated implicitly by neuronal remodeling of the connections between light detecting cells and signal processing in the visual cortex. When the visual pattern recognition system perceives an impossible object, we call it an optical illusion. Many sensory systems use a template-pattern recognition system. Is there an alternative for agency detection? That evolved from earlier template-pattern recognition systems? <br /><br />I appreciate that thinking about certain ideas is difficult (or even impossible) at first. We need to have neuroanatomy that can instantiate those thoughts, and that neuroanatomy only develops via neuronal plasticity and remodeling of already existing neuroanatomy. I think this is why learning requires a path, whereby the “idea templates” and “idea pattern recognition” are modified (or generated de novo) until they match the ideas that are trying to be thought about. Only when the neuroanatomy that can instantiate the ideas exists can the ideas be thought about. daedalus2uhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10416564922288784455noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-14281282921240019552012-10-29T14:33:22.049-04:002012-10-29T14:33:22.049-04:00Very odd. Our comments have been blocked by Jerry...Very odd. Our comments have been blocked by Jerry Coyne from his blog. Fair enough, free thinkers are not immune to defensive fears.<br /><br />However, on his blog post on this conference he talks about looking forward to learning more about physics from one of the attendees. Well, OK but the "answers" to behavior, "morality" free will, etc lie not in physics but brain research, yet free thinkers pile on each other to learn about astronomy and advanced physic while running away from the best brain research.<br /><br />Even the citing of Libet is really way behind the curve, there is so much new research speaking to all the issues but the "best and the brightest" want to sit around and parse philosophical ideas, talk about advanced physics and morality!? <br /><br />It is a good example of how powerful socially confined ideas and discourse can be. Forget quantum theory -- learn about vision research!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15005476.post-29995536504796906312012-10-29T14:24:10.765-04:002012-10-29T14:24:10.765-04:00Here is the central challenge to anyone who cares ...Here is the central challenge to anyone who cares to engage, rather than run away from, the best brain science: behavior appears to be driven in 150 milliseconds completely reactively and unconsciously - by what is called "survival circuits."<br /><br />This is a "beautiful" and "elegant" set of results and theories in the same sense of physics since it leads to natural continuities with other species and biology > organic chemistry > chemistry > laws of thermodynamics > physics.<br /><br />The lack of any brain science in this session is conspicuous by it's absence and suggest the philosopher ideologues conspired to deny the facts. It is embarrassing that the physicists would ever dare to speak on matters best left to neuroscientists. Why so silly?<br /><br />You would think Dawkins, at least, would have raised his hand early and demanded some brain research data. duhAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com