What you say above is true, we can deconstruct endlessly with no useful objective, but that doesn’t mean that the process of deconstruction is wrong.
My example of the car is to illustrate that we build concepts out of “lower level” parts.
The car and the bricks are real, but sometimes we do the same thing and build a construct that doesn’t correspond to reality. I use the word illusion when this happens I guess.
I think time is an illusion because our mind puts together some observations and properties and we feel time, but I don’t think it is an object like the car.
I use the word illusion when this happens I guess.
Why not just call them “mental concepts”?
There’s a case for calling free will an illusion.
You can directly stimulate a neuron to get someone to move his arm up. If you then ask him why he moved his arm he will usually make up an explanation that explains his behavior. He will explain you why he made the free choice to move his arm. Behavior caused by posthypnotic suggestions produces the same effect. T
People makes up a plausible sounding justification for their behavior that’s different from the true cause of their behavior if they aren’t aware of the true cause. There’s the illusion that the person could have made a choice to act differently.
As a result it makes some sense to call free will a cognitive illusion. I doesn’t feel to me like “Money” is in the same class. Money is simply a concept. I don’t feel on a very primal level that a dollar bill is money the way I feel like I’m having control over my own actions. I identify a dollar bill as money because I learned from someone else that it’s money.
Given the history of money I don’t think there strong enough evolutionary pressure to have a direct experience of money the way we have a direct experience of free will.
The car and the bricks are real, but sometimes we do the same thing and build a construct that doesn’t correspond to reality. I use the word illusion when this happens I guess.
What you say above is true, we can deconstruct endlessly with no useful objective, but that doesn’t mean that the process of deconstruction is wrong.
My example of the car is to illustrate that we build concepts out of “lower level” parts.
The car and the bricks are real, but sometimes we do the same thing and build a construct that doesn’t correspond to reality. I use the word illusion when this happens I guess.
I think time is an illusion because our mind puts together some observations and properties and we feel time, but I don’t think it is an object like the car.
Why not just call them “mental concepts”?
There’s a case for calling free will an illusion.
You can directly stimulate a neuron to get someone to move his arm up. If you then ask him why he moved his arm he will usually make up an explanation that explains his behavior. He will explain you why he made the free choice to move his arm. Behavior caused by posthypnotic suggestions produces the same effect. T
People makes up a plausible sounding justification for their behavior that’s different from the true cause of their behavior if they aren’t aware of the true cause. There’s the illusion that the person could have made a choice to act differently.
As a result it makes some sense to call free will a cognitive illusion. I doesn’t feel to me like “Money” is in the same class. Money is simply a concept. I don’t feel on a very primal level that a dollar bill is money the way I feel like I’m having control over my own actions. I identify a dollar bill as money because I learned from someone else that it’s money.
Given the history of money I don’t think there strong enough evolutionary pressure to have a direct experience of money the way we have a direct experience of free will.
Agreed!
Why not just call them “mental concepts”?