4 ms·

> you would have to reduce vast portions of the conscious decision-making matrix to the epiphenomena of a genetic teleology. You have put your finger directly

> you would have to reduce vast portions of the conscious decision-making matrix to the epiphenomena of a genetic teleology. You have put your finger directly on the issue. How could it be possible for sequences of amino acids to influence our emotional reactions to particular classes of stimuli in the real world? Whatever influence there is must come from long and tortuously complex and unreliable chains of causation. Those amino acids cannot simply encode a virility detector in our neural nets. Your skepticism of the connection is quite reasonable. And yet we keep finding examples of the connection. Like the funny reaction of cats to cucumbers in all of those youtube videos. Something biological and not social makes many cats fear a certain class of shapes. Somehow, that emotional and physical response is genetically encoded. Something similar is at work with romantic love. Like a cat fears a snake-shaped blob, a human is aroused by a mate-shaped blob or smell. That arousal in turn influences our emotions, notoriously blinding us to other inputs. Our emotions are written on the dirtiest slates imaginable, scribbled on over and over for billions of generations.

Connor_Creegan 5y ago
I don't really doubt the connection, I doubt the reduction. There is no reason to isolate the phylogenetic march as the primary efficient cause of its own change through time in opposition to the claim that it is a register of that change. There are other possible explanations for innate aptic structures than a genetic determinism which ultimately requires us to accept a theory of consciousness as simply a passive witness to unceasing, out-of-control volitional states.
- hirundo 5y ago
  That's why the topic is a political football. The scope of that volition is a constraint on the scope of effective governance, particularly as fueled by blame.

Connor_Creegan 5y ago

I don't really doubt the connection, I doubt the reduction. There is no reason to isolate the phylogenetic march as the primary efficient cause of its own change through time in opposition to the claim that it is a register of that change. There are other possible explanations for innate aptic structures than a genetic determinism which ultimately requires us to accept a theory of consciousness as simply a passive witness to unceasing, out-of-control volitional states.

hirundo 5y ago
That's why the topic is a political football. The scope of that volition is a constraint on the scope of effective governance, particularly as fueled by blame.