>>7689886
Man is not a machine because machines act on rationality, whereas human beings sometimes act irrationally in order to exercise their ability as free agents to simply do what they are not told to do.

>read Notes From Underground

>>7689886
yes, it is an irrational machine

>>7689892
We might function irrationally but that doesn't mean that our essential processes aren't machine like.

For instance, I can program an irrational robot, but his internal decision making is strictly rational.

>>7690052
But if rationality is defined through utility, and utility is defined through the hedonic calculator, then explain altruism in keeping with your theory.

>>7690089
Mein Gott the spooks

>>7690125
Nice argument there, buddy.

>>7690089
Why should we use the hedonic calculator. Biology has a rather sufficient explanation for altruism with respect to reproductive fitness of the whole group.

>>7689886
>>>/hw/

Yes, man is a machine. Consider one electron of man: does it have sentience? conscience? freewill?

Then consider one atom. One molecule of him. One organ. The right hemisphere of his brain. And so on and so forth.

One might bring in some nonsense about quantum physics, how the very smallest quarks may exhibit random, nondeterministic behavior --- however, this merely means CHANCE as opposed to explicit cause-and-effect, not necessarily any "freewill". It's like flipping a coin: it could land on heads, or tails (or maybe on the side, somehow), but that doesn't mean it can "choose" which it lands on. It is merely random.

Man is the product of heredity (genes), and environment, which can alter which of the information in these genes is used and which is not, what latent skills developed, and which not.

For example, the classic example of throwing a baby in the water, and it spontaneously swimming. It has the heredity to do this by evolution, but if you never throw him in the water, well, he'll never spontaneously learn it in such a manner. Man is a combination of nature and nurture.

The only possibility to move beyond this must include a mystical, Gurdjieffian notion of a "finer matter" more subtle than what we typically think of as matter coating our bodies; must include self-development and the gaining of divine qualities, thus a (potentially very callous) hierarchy between those who have freewill, and those who don't --- a graduated hierarchy, I would think, where there are shades.

>>7691668
What school would assign this as a reading?

>>7691691
>he bought the quantity memes