I have a cold. I sneeze mightily, explosively. I can't decide not to sneeze, but I can with a bit of effort decide when to sneeze. I am told that people with terminal illnesses have the same sort of limited control over the time of their death; they can hold on until family members come, until major anniversaries pass.
Our experience is that we sometimes control our bodies and sometimes are controlled by them, and that there's some negotiating room, both ways.
Our experience is also that sometimes we can explain what happens to us purely in terms of intention ("I planned my day") and sometimes purely in terms of physical processes ("The flu hit me in the middle of my day") and sometimes in both sets of terms, alternating.
I think it is very interesting that we have as our central philosophical example, our touchstone for how complex systems work, a body that makes no practical sense except as an uneasy meeting place of two incommensurable conceptual structures.
Posted by shea0017 at January 17, 2005 8:33 PM