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Recent content by Copernicus

  1. Copernicus

    Do you Think we have Free Will

    You are definitely not dumb, in my opinion. But notice that your quote from Wikipedia does underscore a point I made earlier--that chaotic systems can be described at two levels. They can be described in terms of the the components that interact to create them, or they can be described at the...
  2. Copernicus

    Do you Think we have Free Will

    But I don't need your Wikipedia article to inform me of such things. I have worked in academia and with academics my whole life, including a great many psychologists. My point was that Wikipedia can be useful, but don't assume that what strikes you as new and interesting information will...
  3. Copernicus

    It’s a shame the speaker is at risk of losing his job because he actually did his job.

    I also think that Trump looks to Russia for financial and campaign support, so he has opposed doing anything to help Ukraine since December. Trump is even bringing Kremlin-connected Paul Manafort back into his campaign, which will provide him with a liaison to Putin-connected oligarchs...
  4. Copernicus

    Do you Think we have Free Will

    Quote mining is a time-honored tradition in social media discussion groups, but it isn't a very effective way to discuss a topic. I try to explain my views and back them up in my own words before turning to online sources like Wikipedia, which are primarily useful for background information...
  5. Copernicus

    Do you Think we have Free Will

    It's interesting how far down in the post you got before you acknowledged my acknowledgement of non-physical causes but not their reality. I'm glad I could clear that up, but I still think the thread is mainly about free will and determinism, not mental health. :) If you are just talking to...
  6. Copernicus

    Do you Think we have Free Will

    You asked me to justify calling it 'mental health', and that is just what I did, as you seem to admit here. You just take the position that you wouldn't call it that. And, once again, you avoid a direct answer to my question, which you have very helpfully quoted here. It's a yes/no question...
  7. Copernicus

    Trump

    The problem is that we already have a criminal case that everyone identifies the label "hush money" and, as you point out, another different case that everyone identifies with the label "election interference". They represent very different criminal charges. The nature of the charges...
  8. Copernicus

    Do you Think we have Free Will

    If mental activity is a type of emergent physical activity, then that would be the point of calling it "mental health". As for mental health practitioners, they study all types of therapy, including surgery. Drugs can be very effective, because they change the physical chemistry of the brain...
  9. Copernicus

    Trump

    For people who want updates on the four criminal cases against Donald Trump, Politico has put up a tracking site: Tracking the Trump criminal cases The site gives its assessment of the strengths and weaknesses for each case.
  10. Copernicus

    Do you Think we have Free Will

    You said "the two work together in tandem". I don't see any other way to see it than as a claim. And calling my opinions "idealism" is disrespectful, as it implies that they are driven by dogma rather than reasonable consideration. I don't refuse to acknowledge the possibility of a...
  11. Copernicus

    Do you Think we have Free Will

    I disagree with your claim that the mind is not physical, and I have explained what I mean by that in terms of emergence, a well-understood concept. Minds supervene on neural activity. The nature of that supervenience has been discussed at length in the philosophical literature. See, for...
  12. Copernicus

    Do you Think we have Free Will

    Muhammad, do you understand the concept of systemic emergence? The emergent properties of H2O molecules are not fully predictable from the properties of interacting hydrogen and oxygen atoms alone. Water is an emergent property of interacting H2O molecules that is not fully predictable from...
  13. Copernicus

    Do you Think we have Free Will

    It can be irrelevant, but my philosophical position as a cognitive scientist is that free will is an emergent property of physical brain activity. That is relevant in the current discussion, because it is about the deterministic framework in which one defines what it means to possess free will...
  14. Copernicus

    Do you Think we have Free Will

    I find it tedious to plow through that wall of text when you start it out with so many questionable assumptions, and I simply don't have the time to start picking it apart to separate what makes sense to me from what doesn't. All I can say is that we have a very different understanding of what...
  15. Copernicus

    Do you Think we have Free Will

    No, you brought up the question of brain abnormalities, but the real issue here is that physical activity in brains are the cause of all mental activity, normal or abnormal. That was my point and why I suggested that your focus on mental health was basically a red herring in this discussion...
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