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Question: Ephiphenomenalism - is mind a by product of physical actions!?
Ephiphenomenalism states, the mind, our thoughts, are just emissions that have no effect on our physical actions and that free will is a myth!. For example, we have the thought: I think i'll get up and make a cup of coffee - we get up and make a cup of coffee!. Okay, we appear to have the thought and then perform the action!. But research has shown, that before we have the thought - the wish - the electrical signals in the brain have already been sent to the appropriate areas! So, what appears like free will is in fact the ghost in the machine talking only to itself in a cold, unemotional clock-like universe - what do you think!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Have you considered that if we had the thought before we registered it consciously, that would not rule out our will in the equation!. It just means that our will acted on an impulse first, and then we became aware of it later!.
The fact that signals, if what you say is true, travel first from the brain to the nerve-endings and then register consciously means that the thought was already had, acted on, and then put into language!. Otherwise, I would have to think: 'I want to catch my cup of coffee before it falls into my lap and scalds me' in order to do that action!. Since evolution would place language at a later stage of development, it would make sense that the thought-transmission is antecedent to it!.
I think the whole idea presupposes that thoughts must be in words, and not images, or impulses, in order to be conscious!. It also oversimplifies by claiming that every action has to be conscious for an individual to be undetermined and 'free'!. Which is overstated!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
We do not know enough about the brain for you to say that there is no free will!.
Science is inductive, the senses are inductive, Philosophy is deductive!. I would never mix Philosophy with science!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
yea that′s true remember "Law of atraction"
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A view so deeply flawed that no one even proposes it anymore!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
The inconsistency of the modern mechanist is: If this were merely a material universe and man only a machine, such a man would be wholly unable to recognize himself as such a machine, and likewise would such a machine-man be wholly unconscious of the fact of the existence of such a material universe!. The materialistic dismay and despair of a mechanistic science has failed to recognize the fact of the spirit-indwelt mind of the scientist whose very supermaterial insight formulates these mistaken and self-contradictory concepts of a materialistic universe!.
If the universe were only material and man only a machine, there would be no science to embolden the scientist to postulate this mechanization of the universe!. Machines cannot measure, classify, nor evaluate themselves!. Such a scientific piece of work could be executed only by some entity of supermachine status!.
If universe reality is only one vast machine, then man must be outside of the universe and apart from it in order to recognize such a fact and become conscious of the insight of such an evaluation!.
If man is only a machine, by what technique does this man come to believe or claim to know that he is only a machine!? The experience of self-conscious evaluation of one's self is never an attribute of a mere machine!. A self-conscious and avowed mechanist is the best possible answer to mechanism!. If materialism were a fact, there could be no self-conscious mechanist!. It is also true that one must first be a moral person before one can perform immoral acts!.Www@QuestionHome@Com