John Cleese – The Scientists – 2008
This video is a joke by John Cleese.
However, on the other hand, this (http://www.consciousentities.com/experiments.htm)
discusses a postulation by Benjamin Libet that allegedly proves by means of empirical experiment that the free will of the consciousness of man is an illusion.
Note that concepts such as “experiment” “proof” “free will” “consciousness” and “illusion” are not now and never can be reduced to empirical properties, because they cannot be measured or sensed. The categories we employ to make sense of raw sense data are a priori, something we bring to sense data to interpret it, not something seen in the sense data.
A proof that proves to me that I do not exist by definition assumes I exist, or else there is no one to prove anything to. Likewise for proofs that prove the act of judging proofs does not exist.
So what John Cleese says is meant as a joke and what Benjamin Libet says is meant to be taken seriously, but if any man can find an iota’s worth of difference between what they say, I am not that man.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
