From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Mon Aug 16 1999 - 11:05:35 MDT
At 02:54 AM 16/08/99 -0400, JKC wrote:
>The executive always prevails, it always does what it wants to, it's just
that
>the appetites (and fears) can change what it wants.
Your reply points to the ambiguities in our sense of a controlling self. If
that self is just an illusion or vector summary of whatever happens to be
pushing and pulling at the time, this isn't very informative. If it is
somehow separate, with its own (perhaps hard-won) canons of principles, it
might feel swayed but still need to *choose* to `give in to temptation' or
`choose the lesser of two evils' or pig in at hog heaven and damn the
consequences, or whatever. Neither instance has anything to do, I'd have
thought, with Goedelian considerations.
Does a totally consistent libertarian, or an enlightened and egoless Zen
saint, or a totally depraved fiend, feel like a robot? It's said not to be
the case.
Damien Broderick
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