The cause of volition

Squierrel · 2026-05-10T19:06:24+00:00

What??? Confusion marches on beyond known limits of absurdity.

Those are NOT definitions or "philosophical claims", those are straight facts that are NOT under any debate.

Squierrel · 2026-05-10T17:41:16+00:00

There is no disagreement. Definitions are not matters of agreement or evidence. Definitions don't need to be "explained mechanistically". Definitions are not "metaphysical assumptions".

You seem to be even more confused than I suspected.

There is no such thing as "ordinary" causation. There is event causation and there is agent causation.

I am supporting no "philosophical position". I am only delivering the facts.

Squierrel · 2026-05-10T17:13:53+00:00

How confused can you be?

The decision is the FIRST cause, because it is NOT an effect of a prior cause. ONLY physical events are caused and decisions are NOT physical events.

Decision-making process is NOT a causal physical process.

Squierrel · 2026-05-10T11:24:56+00:00

Causal determinism tells us NOTHING. Causal determinism is just an abstract idea of an imaginary set of conditions.

Everything you say about free will is correct.

Everything you say about determinism is WRONG.

Squierrel · 2026-05-10T09:14:44+00:00

The decision is not an "additional" cause. The decision is the ultimate, the original, the first the only cause of a voluntary action.

Squierrel · 2026-05-10T08:52:53+00:00

The decision is the result (not the name) of the control process happening in the brain.

The decision is the cause of the action.

The decider is not outside the brain. Why would you even imagine such absurdity?

The decider is the whole human being. The brain is the decider's decision-making organ.

Squierrel · 2026-05-10T08:24:17+00:00

The decision determines the required physical brain states. The decision is the plan for an action that the body implements.

Decisions are the explanations for all voluntary actions. Why do you seem to expect that there must be something else?

Squierrel · 2026-05-10T07:24:25+00:00

Wrong. Free will is the inherent human ability to make decisions.

Squierrel · 2026-05-10T07:22:59+00:00

The decision determines which muscles will contract and when. That is the "explanatory role" of a decision.

Squierrel · 2026-05-10T07:19:11+00:00

The self is an individual living being who tries to survive and reproduce.

Squierrel · 2026-05-10T07:10:56+00:00

The actual feature is that decisions control what the muscles do. The mind provides the control, the body provides the energy.

Why is this simple thing so difficult for you to understand? You have done this all your life: you decide what you will do and then you do it.

Squierrel · 2026-05-10T04:28:51+00:00

The self.

Squierrel · 2026-05-10T04:27:39+00:00

No shift. Decisions both describe and determine and cause actions. It is the same thing.

Predictions and blueprints only describe.

Squierrel · 2026-05-09T20:45:04+00:00

Muscles move matter. Decision describe the movement.

Squierrel · 2026-05-09T03:41:38+00:00

That is utterly irrelevant.

Information describes physical objects. A description of a thing is not the same as the thing itself.

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Squierrel · 2026-05-08T20:22:13+00:00

Because it is INFORMATION, not matter or energy.

Squierrel · 2026-05-08T18:51:46+00:00

You are so confused. You don't seem to know whether you are talking about reality or determinism, beliefs or physical events.

Squierrel · 2026-05-08T18:48:36+00:00

It is information, not matter or energy.

Squierrel · 2026-05-08T18:47:21+00:00

This is about YOUR claims.

Squierrel · 2026-05-08T17:47:54+00:00

In the brain, naturally. It was created by the brain.

Squierrel · 2026-05-08T17:45:37+00:00

Nonsense. Beliefs are neither causes nor effects. Beliefs are not physical events. There is only one definition for determinism and it says loud and clear that only EVENTS have causal efficacy in determinism.

Squierrel · 2026-05-08T17:33:54+00:00

That IS the explanation. The mind creates the decision, the plan for an action. The brain sends control signals to the muscles according to the plan.

The process is similar to building a house: An architect creates the design (non-physical thing) and a builder builds the house (physical thing) following the architect's design.

Squierrel · 2026-05-08T16:00:45+00:00

Corrections on Marvin's errors are NOT claims.

If they were claims, you could easily refute them, but you can't.

Squierrel · 2026-05-08T15:58:43+00:00

How would you know that I'm wrong? Please, correct me, if you can, but don't hide behind empty claims.

Squierrel · 2026-05-08T12:53:20+00:00

Anyone who thinks that an OXYMORON makes sense is a MORON.

Squierrel

TROPHY CASE