embodied minds in action mar 2009

[...]... intentional minds like ours in a physical world? And finally the problem of intentional action is this: What explains the categorical difference between the things we consciously and intentionally do, and the things that just happen to us? Whether there are minds significantly unlike ours—ghostly minds, nonspatiotemporal minds, in nite minds, omniscient minds, omnipotent minds, etc.—and if so, what their... Embodiment, Intentionalitylo , Focus, and Intensity 3 Essentially Embodied Agency I: Actions, Causes, and Reasons 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Introduction Classical Causal Theories of Action, and Beyond Against Davidson 1: Reasons are Epiphenomenal Against Davidson 2: Reasons are Insufficient for Actions Against Davidson 3: Actions without Reasons Against Davidson 4: Deviant Causal Chains Again 4 Essentially Embodied. .. First, mindslo are essentially embodied This means that our minds are necessarily and wholly spatially spread through our entire living bodies and all their vital systems, vital organs, and vital processes—including the higher brain, brain stem, limbic system, nervous system, endocrine system, immune system, and cardiovascular system—right out to the skin On our view, mindslo necessarily include our brains... Worrying and Love the Bomb Now intentional acts result from our choosing something, which in turn is the result of our consciously desiring or wanting something But if our consciously desiring or wanting something did not efficaciously, freely,¹³ irreducibly, and literally cause our intentional body movements, then it seems that our deepest ordinary working assumptions and attitudes about intentional action. .. order to maintain itself The prime example of a self-organizing thermodynamic system is a living organism Now, according to the notion of essential embodiment, necessarily all creatures with mindslo are living organisms If correct, then when combined with the thesis that essentially embodied mindslo are self-organizing thermodynamic systems, this entails that by virtue of our having essentially embodied. .. lives, we are also inherently capable of making intentional body movements So as we put it in the Preface, the two core ideas of the Essential Embodiment Theory are these: (1) Conscious, intentional mindslo are the irreducible and truly global or inherently dominating intrinsic structures of motile, neurobiologically complex, situated, forward-flowing, living organisms (2) Nature basically includes complex... thermodynamically irreversible living organismic physical body of any creature having a conscious, intentional mindlo introduction 5 The two core ideas of the Essential Embodiment Theory—(1) that conscious, intentional mindslo are the irreducible and truly global or inherently dominating intrinsic structures of motile, neurobiologically complex, situated, forward-flowing living organisms, and (2) that because... the mind–body problem, the problem of mental causation, and the problem of intentional action As we are construing it, the mind–body problem is this: What explains the existence and specific character of conscious, intentional minds like ours in a physical world? Correspondingly, the problem of mental causation is this: What explains the causal relevance and causal efficacy of conscious, intentional minds. .. theories of action This strategy has led us to an equally non-dualist and non-materialist view of the mind–body relation—the Essential Embodiment Theory This view entails that creatures minded like us are neither ghosts -in- machines nor machines -in- machines On the contrary, creatures with mindslo are essentially embodied minds and self-organizing thermodynamic systems And because nature basically includes... includes causally efficacious living organisms, then mindslo are causally efficacious in the same basic way Or, in other words, creatures with mindslo are motile, neurobiologically complex, situated, forward-flowing living organisms that are truly globally intrinsically structured by irreducible consciousnesslo and intentionalitylo , and are thereby inherently capable of performing intentional body movements . just happen to us? Whether there are minds significantly unlike ours—ghostly minds, non- spatiotemporal minds, in nite minds, omniscient minds, omnipotent minds, etc.—and if so, what their nature.