Psychology question

[apotheosis]

Chubby, I agree that nothing is prefect. When you are referring to "actual" or "ideal" you are referring to limits that we can never reach but may always strive to be closer to. I think that is the purpose of science. Biological Determinism is a hypothesis that you could never prove, but I do believe it makes the most logical sense. Of course, you can make no assumptions, but then you have no model. I'm saying the model with the least assumptions that explains the universe would be a relatively deterministic one, or at least one without any supernatural ideas.

[ChubbyTeletubby]

Well said, as always.

And I do agree to some extent.

You may be brilliant when it comes to mathematics. Just remember that most of these man made models are just that...

man made models.

[xnull]

And that sentence was man-made, Chubby.

Seriously, we could sit all day and tell each other that what they think is man made and therefore worth little, or we could disprove and enlighten one another. That's what's great about the scientific method. We don't bother saying things like, "but you are just a human - therefore your model of planets orbiting the sun is man-made and flawed." Since every alternative theory is man-made as well we can talk in terms of how well made a man-made model is. We do that through reasoning based on empirical observations and before we accept an idea we see that the model does not create a conflict with other knowledge that we have accepted.

If you want to discuss biological determinism or any other type of science, you should do it on the premise that every alternative model we have is just as man-made, but possibly more or less flawed because of the nature of the model; not the nature of its origin.

Biological determinism, from our empirical observations and our reasoning (the only way we've come to understand anything of our universe as it is instead of as we would like it to be), seems to be a very good model. It does not create conflicts with knowledge we have already and it follows logically from all other knowledge we have deduced up until this point. In addition, the model will be useful in the future if we use biological machines to do computations and it will be useful in the future if we do modifications to our own biological shells. As Apoth said it also provides an explanation which does not resort to superstition.

[End Master]

We had the free will debate before, and I didn't feel like retyping my views on it again so here's the thread instead.

http://forums.infinite-story.com/showthread.php?t=156

[Vesnic]

Psyche-rearranging video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuIn3...eature=related

[Dragavan]

Psyche-rearranging video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuIn3...eature=related

Ah, yes, the infamous "The Mysterious Stranger" segment of "The Adventures of Mark Twain" movie made by the California Raisins guy back in the 80s. One of Twain's odder pieces of fictions (although never actually finished it was released in several forms). Strange on all levels, but often mistakenly called a "banned" work when it really never has been. It's even for sale in its entirety on DVD in both the US and UK.

[Vesnic]

Thanks for the background on this, Drag. I was wondering about its origins.

In other news, this thread is relevant to my developing story, as I'm wondering what mental disorder(s) my main character should be diagnosed with. Might turn out to be another schizo, though maybe not. Might just be an underlying case of PTSD with a tendency towards other disordered thinking patterns. Not all that hard to write, really...

[ChubbyTeletubby]

Good point, Xnull. Actually, the more you and Apoth wax on about bio-determinism, the more appealing and more importantly...RATIONAL...it becomes.

Thanks.

I already pretty much agree with you guys on 99 percent of what you say. I just like to play Devils Advocate. I don't do a very good job of it, though.

And on that note, Merry Christmas.

[xnull]

It is strange. When others raise a counterpoint to my logical argument, I always get a sense of what to say to lead the conversation in an advantageous direction.

When the opposition says, "Nice, yep - that makes total sense." I am always at a loss. I have no fucking clue what to say...

...Of course I am!
...Well now that you agree I'm going to find something else to think.
...Thank you for giving in so easily.
...I agree with you too!

I feel like there isn't any appropriate answer. To acknowledge you've convinced the other side will lead you to become cocky (or more so if you are already) and will at best make you appear to be cocky. To ignore it might seem humble, but it also kills the conversation and is also kind of boring.

So Chubby, I'll try something different here.

Here we rewind to the solipsism discussion: who wants to gather with me to have a solipsist convention?

[wolfen44]

Good Psych question for you guys why in life has the govern come to run every thing and they say that things are going to get better but things just get worse. Lets take a reality check we have argued over abortion, gay marrigages, the stock market is slowly crashing, were on the brink of WWIII.
My question is this why cant we just stop look evauluate and recreate in more favorable term its time for a reset globally