Bob K,
Are you not aware that your arguments are being used by social theorists who contend that, because the antiquated religious notion of the ‘Black Box’ has now been eviscerated, we no longer have any basis for clinging to the illusion of free will? In their view, neuroscience has established that the “mind” is just like everything else in the universe: all human action can now be interpreted as proceeding from prior physical events in the great causal chain that started with the Big Bang. Since we are all just puppets, nobody is responsible for his choices and actions any more. We can blame everything on our brains.
If we commit a crime, we can hire Jackie Chiles or Mark Garegos to argue before the court that “He didn’t do it! It was his brain!”
You would be much loved by today’s liberals, Bob, if you wanted to go that route. Hillary and Barack just dote on folks who play the helpless victim of causal forces beyond their control. And--as Ed has been trying to explain--that’s exactly where your logic leads, whether you care to admit it or not.
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But we are social persons, not social animals. Hence we cannot be satisfied, as the gregarious animals are, simply by herding together, simply by being useful to another, or simply by the pleasures of bodily contact. We want to share one another's lives. How can this be done? Only by conversation -- which is indispensable to love. Love without conversation is impossible. Conversation without love is quite possible, but then it is only abstract discussion, not the heart-to-heart talk which is the conversation of lovers. Unless we love and are loved, each of us is alone, each of us is deeply lonely. Unless we enjoy the community of love -- the communication or conversation of love, we cannot get out of ourselves, and we are shut out from all others, as animals are, even when they herd closely together.
