But if the agent's aims, beliefs and reasons are nothing other than the resolution of an incalculable number of interacting physical events, then it is just physical interactions.From the agential perspective, the sort of action that took place is intelligible in light of the agent's aims, beliefs and reasons. — Pierre-Normand
But if the agent's aims, beliefs and reasons are nothing other than the resolution of an incalculable number of interacting physical events, then it is just physical interactions. — Patterner
My interpretation of MoK's sentence is that, if what we call thought is the interaction of matter and forces, then it is not different than the freezing of water, the foam that results from mixing vinegar and baking soda, an avalanche, a supernova, the growth of a tree, the path of the planets around the sun, ChatGPT, and literally everything else that ever happens anywhere.↪MoK You say "How could we have a single thought, knowing that all that exists is matter and forces?" As if you know of some other way to have a single thought. — flannel jesus
Yes, we are not all-knowing, which is why we are unsure in certain situations. We don't know whether it is better to do something or not. That means we are dealing with options in those situations where we are not sure.I did take on board your question and I answered it to the best of my knowledge. If you have a better answer, I am happy to read about it. — Truth Seeker
Having a thought requires an entity to experience it, what I call the mind. Putting this point aside, we are returning to my former point: How could we have options in our thoughts knowing that our thoughts are the result of the motion of matter and electromagnetic fields where these motions are deterministic? So we have to either exclude the existence of options, which I highly doubt to be possible, or we have to find a proper answer to this question. To be honest, I don't have an answer to the question and I doubt if anyone has an answer for it either so it is an open question.You say "How could we have a single thought, knowing that all that exists is matter and forces?" As if you know of some other way to have a single thought. — flannel jesus
That means we are dealing with options in those situations where we are not sure. — MoK
So we have to either exclude the existence of options, which I highly doubt to be possible, or we have to find a proper answer to this question. — MoK
They are real because I have had doubts in many situations in my life. It could be a feature of maps rather than territories but then we have to deal with the question I raised.What makes you so sure "options" are ontologically real things, and not just a feature of maps rather than a feature of territories? — flannel jesus
I cannot see how they could be physical accepting that physical entities are deterministic by deterministic I mean that any state of matter only leads to one unique state later. If we accept that options are real in the physical world then it means that one state of matter may lead to one state or another state later and this is against the very definition of determinism.And if options ARE ontologically real things, why couldn't they be physical? — flannel jesus
I believe in De Broglie-Bohm's interpretation. No Schrodinger cat paradox, no wave-particle duality, etc.Maybe a wave function is the physical manifestation of an option. — flannel jesus
They are real because I have had doubts in many situations in my life. It could be a feature of maps rather than territories but then we have to deal with the question I raised. — MoK
Could anyone have made a different choice in the past than the ones they made? — Truth Seeker
I talked about a situation when you are not certain, by this I mean you do not know the consequence of your decision. — MoK
4. Step on it and clean it up.1. Clean up the dog poo.
2. Avoid stepping on the dog poo but not clean it up.
3. Step on the dog poo. — Truth Seeker
Yes, the fourth option is also possible.1. Clean up the dog poo.
2. Avoid stepping on the dog poo but not clean it up.
3. Step on the dog poo.
— Truth Seeker
4. Step on it and clean it up. — Patterner
Interesting article. It however does not explain what is the source of doubts.Neural nets - as in, things like Chat GPT - have doubts. They have ways of representing internal confidence levels about their models about the data they're ingesting. — flannel jesus
Then options are real if you don't know the consequences of your actions.We never know all the long-term consequences of our actions. — Truth Seeker
It however does not explain what is the source of doubts. — MoK
We never know all the long-term consequences of our actions.
— Truth Seeker
Then options are real if you don't know the consequences of your actions. — MoK
Doubts are not allowed in a deterministic world. Everything is certain in a deterministic world since by definition determinism refers to a worldview in which each state of matter uniquely defines another state of matter later. So, I ask you this question whether you have ever had a doubt. If yes, then we are dealing with a problem, the problem being how doubt is possible. I don't think that anyone has a clear answer to this. So to me, the mental phenomena are not easy to understand and do not follow the rule of determinism. — MoK
It is correct given the definition of doubt.The statement: "Doubts are not allowed in a deterministic world." is false. — Truth Seeker
I am talking about mental state doubt.Let me give you an example to help you understand. The selection of lottery numbers is entirely deterministic. I doubt I can predict them with 100% accuracy every time. My inability to predict which lottery numbers will be drawn at each draw has to do with my lack of omniscience and the large number of possibilities. — Truth Seeker
I am talking about mental state doubt. — MoK
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