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Merry Christmas
Or,
The Gift You Can’t
Exchange – It’s an Absolutely Perfect Fit!
W.J. Holly, Ph.D.
I
Your
present was too large to put under the tree last year. You were given a full-sized
tractor-lawnmower. They led you outside
to see your gift, and of course you were excited. “Where do I sit?” you asked. How do I start it, and where are the controls? Where are the pedals, and how do I make it
turn right and left, stop and go?
This
year, however, you are given a different sort of gift. It comes from a metaphysician. He tells you that he is making you a gift of
a different kind – a compleat robot – a conscious, fully automated,
deterministic automaton. Of course you
are excited. “Where is it?” you
ask. “Is it outside?”
“My
gift,” replies the metaphysician “is the knowledge that you yourself are a
deterministic, purely physical, organic automaton.”
And
what is your next question? “Where do I
sit? Where are the controls? How do I make it stop and go, turn right and
left, this automaton that is my very self?”
II
If I
were a frog, there should be no such problem.
I would know how to make myself jump, if I were a frog. For, I once owned a frog that I entered in
races. Of course! If I were a frog, I should need only to reach around and touch myself on the rump to
make myself jump.
But,
now, I stare into the abyss of that regress, vicious and infinite: With
what hand … and at what spot … do I touch myself to make my hand reach around behind,
to touch me on the rump that I might jump?
How, indeed, am I to operate
this automaton that I find that I myself am?
But, the metaphysician tells me not to worry, that the automaton is
fully automated and running. Its course
is already set and locked. It’s every
sound and motion down to the last sigh and whisper has been unalterably
determined from the very beginning of time.
“What
then is there left for me to do?” I exclaim in tones bordering on panic. “Am I simply to sit and watch myself to see
what I might do?”
“Be
calm,” says the metaphysician. “There is
everything for you to do, just as before.
You are not the outside observer of an automated robot that is separate
from yourself. You yourself are that
very automation.”
“But,
if I am fully automated, then already I have been set to mow the lawn or
not. If I have been set to mow the lawn,
then I will mow the lawn. If I have been set not to mow the lawn, then I will not mow it. So, again, I
ask, what is there left for me to
do? Why can’t I simply sit down and wait
to see what it is that I have been set to do?”
“You
seem not to understand,” replies the metaphysician. “If you sit down and wait to see what you have
been set to do, then the lawn will not get mowed. The automaton that is your very self will do
exactly as you do, just as you will do exactly as it does. If you sit and wait, it too will sit and
wait. For, you are not an outside
observer of this automation, separate from it.
You yourself are that very
automaton.”
“Of
course I understand that much,” I
object. “It is clear that I am the
automaton in question, so that of course I will do everything that the
automaton has been set to do. If it has
been set to sit down, then I will sit.
If it has been set to mow the lawn, then I will mow. And, if it has been set to ponder, weigh, and
finally to decide to mow the lawn, then I will be the one to ponder, weigh, and
decide.”
“But you,
Sir, are the one who fails to grasp my problem. If even my decisions have been set for me,
what is there left for me to do but
to wait passively to see what it is that I have been set to decide?”
The
metaphysician’s smile grows thin. “You
are a very special kind of automaton, not passive at all. You have motivating needs, values, and
desires of your own. For example, when
you have gone too long without food, you automatically begin to prowl,
searching for food. You also have an
active intelligence, and knowledge, skills, habits, and the ability to acquire
and assess information as you need it.
And, you have the ability to use that intelligence and information in
deciding best how to achieve what you desire.”
“You
are not a passive automaton like a tractor-lawnmower that is controlled by an
outside operator. Your decisions and
other actions – you yourself – are part of the causal chain, not something
outside it. Again, you are not an
outside observer of the decisions and actions made by the deterministic
automaton. You yourself are the very automaton making those decisions and
performing those actions.”
I can
see that the metaphysician’s patience is strained, and I struggle to put my
finger on the source of my discontent.
“But if I am not controlled as a tractor-lawnmower is, by someone
outside operating external controls, stopping and starting me, steering me, and
so forth, then I must be operating myself!
But, it does not seem that I am an inside operator of myself. There are no internal controls. There is not any internal panel of which I am
aware that has knobs, levers, pedals, brakes, or buttons to push. So, how can you say that I am automatic, that
I am operating myself?”
“I
never did say that you do operate yourself,” the metaphysician corrects
me. “A fully automated being cannot operate itself, as it is not
separate from itself. It simply functions as the
information-gathering, goal-pursuing automaton that it is. Again, you are neither an outside operator
nor an inside operator of the automaton that you are. You
yourself are that very automaton, actively performing your various functions.”
I am
becoming quite exasperated. “But that
brings me back to my same old problem,” I say.
“If I am just a deterministic automaton running on automatic – if I am
not operating myself – then how can I
be anything more than an observer of myself and my behavior? How can I actively initiate anything? How can any of my thoughts, decisions, or
actions be anything but automatic reflexes, automaticisms, reactions to prior
physical or psychological events?
Granting that I and the workings of my mind, brain, and body are just
part of the deterministic causal chain, where is there room for me to actively insert
and assert myself to make a difference in what happens?”
I
struggle for a way to make my problem concrete. “Look at it this way. Suppose that I am sitting on the couch in the
evening and notice that the light is becoming too dim for comfortable
reading. I know that I need to reach
over and switch on the lamp. But, how
can I intervene in the determined course of events to make my hand go over and
turn the switch? There is no internal
switch for me to turn to make my hand reach out. But, if there is no switch for me to turn to
make my hand reach out, how on earth can I make it reach out to turn on the
light? Do I do this by forming some
volitional act of willing to turn on
the light that somehow makes my hand reach out?”
A look
of serene patience settles on the metaphysicians’ face. “In the first place, you must admit that you
have no introspective access to or awareness of any volitions, willings, or
intentions. Sometimes when you are being
lazy, of course, you prompt yourself by saying such things as ‘I have to get
up, I have to get up, I’ll be late and lose my job if I don’t get up.’ You might even puff and blow to get your
steam up. And, when extreme physical
effort is needed to push a car for a roll start, you experience your physical
effort and say that you are trying to make it move. Or, when you decide, for example, to quit
smoking (come hell or high water, as they say) you may experience what you call
a feeling of resolve.”
“But,
what do these feelings really amount to?
Does the feeling of resolve that you have when you decide to quit
smoking feel any different from the resolve to finish grading the papers that
are overdue? Can you describe the
phenomenology of these feelings with sufficient precision to enable another
person to identify them in himself and differentiate between them? How many volitions does it take to get a tire
changed? Does it take one to get the
trunk open, and other one to get the jack out, or does it take a separate
volition for the contraction and relaxation of each of the muscles involved in
grasping the tools, in looking to see where the jack is, or what? Do you have any experience of these
intentions or volitions, and can you describe them for us?”
“You
know how to teach your son to change a tire.
There are well-known steps here.
But, is the first step in changing a tire the formation of an intention
or volition to change the tire? And, if
your son had never had such an intention, could you tell him how to manufacture
one? Could you tell him how it might
differ from the intention to change his underwear, so that he might be saved
from the embarrassment of initiating the wrong action while on the shoulder of
the freeway? Can you tell him how to
pump up an intention that is underinflated?
Is it possible to mistake one of your intentions for another and get the
wrong one in the firing chamber, so to speak?
And, how did you yourself identify your intention to change a tire the
first time your ever had one, without waiting to see what kind of action
followed it? No, you cannot tell me
anything about these internal mental causes of your actions precisely for the reason
that you have no consciousness of them even in yourself.”
“Secondly,
and perhaps even more importantly, even if it were the case that you operated
yourself, made yourself stop and go and raised your arm, by manipulating these
internal volitions and intentions, you still would need to do something else in
order to manufacture or bring about these internal mental causes. Volitions and intentions are essentially no
different from internal knobs, buttons, and levers on an internal control
panel. If you can’t simply raise your
hand, if you need to raise an intention to raise your hand, then it would seem
that you also would need to do something to raise the intention to raise your
hand. And, in turn, you would have to
raise a prior intention to raise the intention to raise the intention to raise
your hand, and so on indefinitely, so that you never could get started. So, you see that this line of thinking simply
leads you down the path of a vicious and infinite regress.”
I am
flabbergasted. I don’t know what to
say. “Well, then, I am just back where I
started. If I don’t form intentions or
volitions to get myself to do the things I do, then it seems that I am simply
moved by external stimuli as the behaviorists say. External conditions, reinforcement schedules,
and so on are what operate me. I am no
different from a train being guided by the tracks, needing no steering at
all. So, again, why can’t I simply sit
down and wait to see which way my environment will guide me?”
“You
oversimplify,” says the metaphysician.
“But, in a sense what you say is true.
If you sit down and wait to see what you shall do, discouraged by your
philosophical reflections, eventually you will experience what I call the
Humean-human effect – so called after the skeptical Scottish philosopher, David
Hume, who discovered that he could not keep his skeptical doubts in place
during the course of busy human affairs.
After sitting awhile, you will become restless or hungry, or be reminded
of pressing affairs that need your attention.
And so you will get up and do something, get a bite to eat, and get on
with your life. And, you will do this
without needing to form any intentions or perform any acts of willing. Your environment (reality, as some people
call it) will make its demands and prod you into action.”
“You oversimplify, however, in
comparing yourself to a locomotive being passively guided by the rails. When
you get up for a bite to eat, it will be because you are hungry, or because you
smell something delicious that you had been cooking in the oven. But, the things that your environment prompts
you to do will be your actions
because they will be in accord with your needs, desires, likes and dislikes,
values, thoughts, hopes, fears, character traits, habits, reflections,
decisions, and so on. You will be doing
what you want to do, what you think is good and sensible, and so
on.”
“Well,”
I say. “You might think me greedy and
unreasonable to want more than that – that my actions flow from or be in accord
with my beliefs, desires, values, and character, and that they be appropriate
to the environment. But, I think that
your analysis still leaves me passive, not active. It still remains the case that everything I
do is caused, on your analysis. The only
difference now is that my environment and heredity shape and form my character,
habits, desires, values, beliefs and so on that become the proximate causes of
my behavior. “
“I
understand that this seems an unreasonable complaint, since of course I do want
my actions to flow from my character and from what I want, believe, and
value. The things I do would not even
seem to be my actions if they were not in accord with what I personally want
and think. And, of course, I surely would
not want my actions to be uncaused, accidental, chance, random. No, I want them to flow from (be caused by?)
my most accurate beliefs and my most noble desires.”
“But,
it seems patently false that my beliefs and desires cause me to do the things I
do. Recall the example of my needing to
turn on the light in order to read better.
It does not seem that my desire for better lighting and my belief that
it can be obtained by reaching over are sufficient to cause me to turn on the
light. Sometimes I just don’t do
it. Of course you may be right that if I
sit in the growing dark long enough, eventually the environmental stimulus will
cause me to turn it on, given the beliefs and desires I have. But, it still seems to me that there remains
something for me to do. I still
need to reach over and turn on the light.”
“It
just is not the case that beliefs, desires, and environmental stimuli are
causes of my actions. I myself am the
cause of my actions. I myself must
initiate my actions. And, I can’t do
that by forming beliefs and desires that might goad or prompt me into
action. Even if I already desire the
light to be on and know that it can be turned on by flipping the switch, that
doesn’t make the switch get flipped. My
knowledge and belief don’t make my hand go out and flip it. There still remains something for me to do. I still need to reach out and do it.”
“And
isn’t that exactly how it is?” responds the metaphysician. “Given your knowledge and desire, and given
the fading light, you will just reach out and flip the switch, unless there is
some countervailing reason not to. You just do it.”
“Stop,” I
cry. “Don’t tell me that I just do it. That is completely unhelpful and mystifying,
and you know it. How do I initiate this action?
If my knowledge and belief aren’t enough to make my hand reach out and
flip the switch, then there must be something in between that I must do to get
my hand to reach out. How do I do
it? Do not tell me that I just do it!”
“But,
there isn’t any how to it,” replies
the metaphysician. “The very point of
saying that you just do it is that there
isn’t any how to it. You simply do it without needing to do
anything else to bring it about. And,
isn’t that exactly how it happens?
Sometimes you take longer than other times to respond to the stimuli,
but eventually you do. It just
happens. You just respond, act, reach
out, and perform the appropriate action, functioning naturally as the
well-designed, functional automaton that you are.”
“When
your alarm rings in the morning, you open your eyes, see the time, and reach
out to touch the snoozer button. You do
all this without forming any intentions or volitions or anything else. You simply function naturally as the
intelligent, knowledgeable, goal-seeking automaton that you are, naturally
perceiving, analyzing, and doing the things you need to do in order to satisfy
your needs and desires.”
When
you see footprints in the mud, you just naturally and automatically conclude
that a person has passed that way before you.
There is nothing you need to do in order to form that conclusion. It simply comes to you naturally. When a person asks you for your phone number,
the answer is naturally evoked, prompted from you. Why should you imagine that actions that
involve physically reaching out should require prior intentions to bring them
about, any more than do the thoughts and answers that just come to you and pass
your lips?”
“No. When you step outside and see the wind
blowing dark clouds before it, the thought that it is going to rain is
naturally evoked from you if you are functioning normally as the
information-processing automaton that you are.
You do not need to form an intention to draw that conclusion in order to
draw it. You just do it. And, if a mosquito lands on your face, you
simply swat it, without needing to form an intention to get your hand to
move. When the bread pops up in the
toaster in the morning, you simply reach over, pick it up, and proceed to
butter it, without needing to do anything to get yourself to pick up the
knife. And, if I ask you who discovered
the Pacific, you simply answer, “Balboa.”
You don’t need to do anything to get your lips to move when you answer
my questions. Speaking is just another
of your natural functions. Why should
you think that you need to pull internal levers, mental or physical, to make your
hand go to the butter knife, any more than you should need to pull such levers
– do something in between – to get a conclusion to come or to get your lips and
tongue to move when you have something to say?”
“No,”
says the metaphysician. “There is nothing
that you need to do in order to operate your mind, your brain, your lips, your
legs and hands, and eyes. You are not a being separate and apart, needing
to operate the deterministic, natural, organic automaton that you find that you
yourself are. You simply are that
automaton, and simply function naturally as the living, breathing, seeing,
feeling, thinking, talking, acting automaton that you are.”
“Well,”
I stammered, at a loss for reply.
“Well,”
said the metaphysician. “The night is
getting late, and I really must be on my way.
Merry Christmas!”
“Merry
Christmas to you too,” I said. And then
I realized that he was right. The words
had indeed come naturally to my lips, without my needing to do anything at all
to get them out. I had simply functioned
naturally as the polite being that I am, responding naturally to a polite
goodnight with a polite goodnight in return.
And, I could not help myself from shouting into that night air, “A merry Christmas to all, and to all
metaphysicians,
Good Night!”
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