Origin Action is simply the Potentiality-for-Being of the self Made-Present through the physical manifestation of that Potentiality. The sensory projections have created a multitude of Potentialities that have been sent to the frontal cortex, so at first these need to be screened and appropriately chosen for execution. Within the sensory regions of brain, Dasein can and should be operating in an objective manner, its true purpose here being to represent with practical fidelity the world in which Dasein Is. But herein lies an inability to "express" a preference and in order to do so Dasein must be able to Interpret subjectively. Action, therefore, as equally determined by the pressures of evolution that constructed the senses, must subjectively serve the interests of the instance, and must therefore rely on a measure not of the world but of its own creation and definition in order that it may pass judgement; Emotion. Criteria for selection Emotion is the guide by which every Potentiality presented for possible action is judged, it is the tool by which the path of Dasein is selected. In fact, it is simply a manner of Interpretation that has been curbed during the development of the brain by a hard-wired response to sensed good and bad experiences. Some examples of bad stimuli include the sensation of hunger, sensed pain and Shock or Anxiety induced by cortical Interpretations. Good stimuli may include the sensation of a sated stomach, the absence of sensed pain or fulfilled Potentialities-for-Being (correct Anticipations). All of this information is collected and acted upon by sub-cortical structures, in particular the thalamus, that by their action influence cortical functions. Selection Having received afferent Potentialities-for-Being from the hybrid senses then, the supplementary motor cortex Interprets the best possible course of action by both filtering out the bad and permitting the good to proceed to the primary motor cortex. As a consequence, there is no such thing as "free will" in the strong sense of Dasein observing and selecting a choice as if a totally objective arbitrator. When a choice is presented before Dasein, what is known, what is experienced, is the Potentiality-for-Being of each possibility. Each Potentiality is a reality of the world as it may be, and this reality is experienced by the instance in a manner dependent on the quality of the Interpreted Potentiality; the better the Interpretation and the more complete with respect to the relevant Entities, the more real it seems in the function of Dasein. This is linked to the perception of thought, as covered in the section on language, and fundamentally this phenomenon of perception of a Potentiality of a choice leads Dasein to believe it may perform the function we label by the verb "choice". This is not possible in fact. Interpretation at the relevant level of the Potentialities with respect to Emotion "decides" for Dasein. To be sure, Dasein can direct itself to recall certain memories (declarative memory recall - to be added) or weight Interpretation towards the consideration of certain Entities (attention control) and in so doing perhaps alter the outcome of the Emotional Interpretation. But, factually, this is the sum total of the process we have ourselves labelled "choice". One may posit the argument that, "given a choice between eating an apple or not eating an apple, I know that I am free to do either and I when I do choose I know that it has been a conscious decision." The awareness that one can do a thing, the Potentiality-for-Being, is, as we have seen, on the border of actually performing that action, and in this Dasein is very aware of what itself may do. Further, it is evident to Dasein, having performed these Interpretations for years (in humans), that it is itself coming to select one of the many paths it perceives. Thus, Dasein "covers up" the true nature of this process with the notion of "choice" that it perceives itself making. One would not claim a child makes "choices" as an adult does, yet they are performing the exact same process. The only difference is the cloak of self-perception, imbued on the adult by sentience, that conceals the true nature of the action we call "choice". Created 21st October 2008 Last Revised 27th October 2008 |