Article View: comp.ai
Article #8364Re: Free will and responsibility.
From: Barry W. Kort
Date: Sun, 28 May 1989 00:52
Date: Sun, 28 May 1989 00:52
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In article <386@edai.ed.ac.uk> cam@edai (Chris Malcolm) writes: > ... in everyday living we normally suppose that those > whose actions are bizarrely unpredictable are nutcases > who have no free will, their actions being determined > by the unfathomable pathology of their illness, whereas > those whose actions are most predictable are those Good, > Sane, and Rational people who ALWAYS choose to do the > Right Thing by their well-known publicly-declared value > system. In fact, the reason why I sometimes fail to > exercise my free choice to do the Right and Proper thing > is that I sometimes lose control of myself, and am overcome > by the determinism of some animal greed... Yeah, that happens to me too. Now and then my cerebral cortex and my limbic system get into a contest and my rational mind yields control to my pre-wired instincts. The R-complex often "gets there first." But with enough cognitive processing, the cerebrum eventually discovers a superior strategy, and reclaims control. The hardest contests to overcome are responses to those stimuli which trigger the deepest fears. --Barry Kort
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arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!psuvax1!psuvm.bitnet!cunyvm!nyser!mstr!pwa-b!philabs!linus!mbunix!bwkReferences:
<10333@ihlpb.ATT.COM> <3850@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <52019@linus.UUCP> <533@orawest.UUCP> <2586@rice-chex.ai.mit.edu>Show Full Headers
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!psuvax1!psuvm.bitnet!cunyvm!nyser!mstr!pwa-b!philabs!linus!mbunix!bwk From: bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry W. Kort) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: Free will and responsibility. Summary: Learning to handle tough situations Keywords: Self-Protective Behaviors, Survival Strategies, Devils and Angels Message-ID: <54737@linus.UUCP> Date: 28 May 89 00:52:10 GMT References: <10333@ihlpb.ATT.COM> <3850@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <52019@linus.UUCP> <533@orawest.UUCP> <2586@rice-chex.ai.mit.edu> Sender: news@linus.UUCP Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort) Organization: Garden Golems, Inc., Norbert, WI Lines: 23