[MD] Free Will

[Steven Peterson]

On Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 10:35 PM,  <craigerb at comcast.net> wrote:
> [Steve]
>> As your thoughts come unbidden
>> anyway, then ask yourself where these thoughts come from.
>

Craig:
> From me, of course.  Neuroscience can even pin down the parts of the brain
> involved.
> The important point is to avoid the following non-sequitors:
> That sometimes thoughts come to us "unbidden" does not entail
> that we never bid them.
> That we sometimes act without deliberation does not entail we
> never act with deliberation.
> That we sometimes act without control does not entail we never
> act with control...
> etc.

Steve:
What is interesting to me is that though we tend to feel like our
conscious self is the author of our thoughts, when we mediate--when we
make our best effort to be conscious and pay attention to our own
thoughts--we notice that that feeling of willing our thoughts is
nowhere to be found. This is what Harris means when he says that the
illusion of free will is itself an illusion. When we really pay
attention, even the feeling of free will just isn't there.

Now you say that just because it isn't there sometimes doesn't mean it
is never there. However, in this case your claim to feel like you have
free will is like the person who claims that he can make himself
invisible with the stipulation that it only works when no one is
looking. When we don't pay attention to our consciousnesses, we feel
like we are conscious of free will, but when we make our best efforts
to be conscious of our thoughts, we don't feel like we have an
experience of feeling like we have free will. So this feeling of free
will upon reflection does not seem to be part of our conscious self.
It is a feeling associated with our unconscious selves asserting
themselves into our consciousnesses.