[Rq-rules] Farewell to CON

[Gary Sturgess]

> Are you suggesting that every member of the species,
> heck *regardless* of species, has exactly the same
> motivation? Or that their motivation is generated
> entirely by external sources (carrots and sticks)?

I'm suggesting that willpower is an illusion, and spirit just flat out
doesn't exist. In the real world, that is. The former is debatable, of
course, but behaviourist psychology, materialism, and the laws of
physics make it likely. Spirit, on the other hand, assuming you're
using some metaphysical definition (which is the usual meaning), is in
the same category as any other supernatural phenomenon - ie I'll
believe it when someone wins the million dollar prize. YMMV.

We're physical creatures; the fact that it seems you have such things
as free will and willpower doesn't make it true, any more than the
fact that it seems that solid objects are really solid is true - we
know the latter are composed mostly of empty space, but that doesn't
make the illusion that they're not any less convincing.

> I'm pretty sure spirit (l'esprit, motivation) and
> willpower exists, is variable among individuals and is
> primarily generated by internal values.

Depends on what you mean by "internal". If you mean "inside my own
brain", fair enough, but that's still definitely in the realm of the
physical. If you mean "inside my own metaphysical equivalent of
'self'", then I maintain that I don't believe any such thing is real,
and Cartesian Dualism has not been a popular theory for a long time.

But if you are saying that certain collections of chemicals exert what
we outwardly perceive as high willpower or motivation, and that these
chemicals are distributed inequally amongst human brains, then I have
no problem with that assertion. It's where it was implied to be
metaphysical (which POW in RQ definitely is) that I took exception.
-- 
GAZZA