[Avodah] animals and bechira??

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 10:21:58AM -0500, David Riceman wrote:
> On 1/30/2012 6:56 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
>> As I said earlier, see the Meshekh Chokhmah on tzelem E-lokim. He  
>> insists bechirah is the very tzelem which makes human beings human.

> He is reflecting a commonplace medieval doctrine, that animals make  
> impulsive choices and humans make thoughtful choices...

I'm not sure impulsive vs thoughtful is actually the MC's chiluq.

Computers have provided us with a mashal for complicated, non-reflexive,
but also not free-willed decision-making. While this mashal wasn't
available to the MC, we who know there are other possible chiluqim
can't assume that the MC's criterion was the same as those who realied
on Greek Natural Philosophy.

By the time the MC was written, the world already absorbed the ideas
of non-conscious thought (Kant's and RYSalanter's "dunkel") and the
contrast to consciousness.

...
> One slightly less awkward way is to claim that bechirah specifically  
> means choosing to obey or disobey God (cf. Meor Einayim on Parshas Bo  
> s.v. "ubazeh yevuar").  I don't like that because, as the Meor Einayim  
> acknowledges, it implies that people often lack bechirah.

In MmE, REED's famous nequdas habechirah suggests in a very different way
that many human decisions don't involve bechirah. It is only when there is
internal conflict forcing the decision to be made consciously. Otherwise,
the decision is made preconsciously, before you even noticed you made
it -- if you ever do.

Assuming the MC, half a century earlier, had a similar worldview, one
would have a different chiluq -- decisions that involved awareness of
one's thinking, and those that don't.

And there are reasons since the MC to believe that animals lack the
brain anatomy to watch themselves think. At least, they don't have at
least two of the areas of the brain that are involved when humans do it.
But we've discussed this just a few months back.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Worrying is like a rocking chair:
micha at aishdas.org        it gives you something to do for a while,
http://www.aishdas.org   but in the end it gets you nowhere.
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