zaterdag 20 februari 2016

Our unconscious leaves no room for free will

Our unconscious decides what we do, feel and think, including the idea of free will. See The Smart Unconscious (Het slimme onbewuste) by Ap Dijksterhuis:

We place consciousness on a pedestal, see it as the ultimate accomplishment of evolution and believe that it differentiates us from other animals: that it makes us sensible and rational, that it plays the deciding role in our brain and steers our behaviour.

Our unconscious on the other hand, is seen as subordinate. As no more than an assistant to our consciousness. Freud even described it as a reservoir of miserable memories and bestial urges that our consciousness needs to keep in check.

The Smart Unconscious demonstrates that this viewpoint is absurd and that it is in fact the unconscious which defines our being. It steers (with a digestive capacity almost 200.000 larger than that of our consciousness) our behaviour, our thinking, and our feelings. In this book Ap Dijksterhuis clarifies human behaviour in a surprisingly lucid manner.’

‘Ap Dijksterhuis (1968) is a professor of Psychology at the University of Nijmegen. He has written extensively on the unconscious, and his work has been published in the authoritative journal Science, among others. His research receives a lot of attention and has often been reviewed by the NYT. He has won numerous scientific awards, including the prestigious Early Career Award of the American Psychological Association.’

http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2009/10/sci-brief.aspx

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