"Now, where did my coffee go? Who decided to drink it?" Peer pressure, like smoking? Who in their right mind would smoke? The illusion of free choice... --- On Sun, 6/29/08, John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: From: John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Conscious after the fact? To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Date: Sunday, June 29, 2008, 4:05 PM On Sun, Jun 29, 2008 at 2:12 PM, Phil Enns <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Curious use of the word 'decision'. Can I make a decision and never know it? I don't know about Phil Enns, but I do all the time. Consider, for example, my behavior as I check and respond to my e-mail. When I start there is a full cup of coffee sitting beside my laptop. Then comes a moment when I reach out for another swallow of coffee and realize that the cup is empty. Plainly I have repeatedly been reaching out, picking up the cup and taking sips of coffee without being aware of these actions until the absence of coffee interrupts my routine. Phil could say, of course, "Those aren't decisions; they are only habitual behaviors." In making this statement he will appeal to the prototype of rational decision making in which, ideally, the decider is conscious throughout the process. This is the view that finds its apotheosis in instructions on how to make rational decisions that assume (1) clear options, (2) processes for assigning value to those options, and (3) a rule that says to choose the option whose value is greatest, being mindful of all the lesser decisions that go into (1') distinguishing among the options, (2') following precisely the prescribed processes, and (3') calculating and comparing values. There now are, however, numerous lines of research that converge on the proposition that most of life's choices are not made in this way. A few that I have mentioned before include recognition-primed decision making (Gary Klein), behavioral economics (Amos Tversky, Daniel Kahneman), affective politics (George E. Marcus, W. Russell Neuman, Michael MacKuen), sociology (Pierre Bourdieu), cognitive science (Marvin Minsky, et al.). All wrestle, while starting from various disciplinary starting points, with a process familiar to mystics, coaches, language and music teachers, and martial arts instructors; to anyone, in fact, who seeks the state that Zen masters call no-self, in which correct and effective response to fluid situations occurs without conscious awareness. Complicating the debate is the fact that both cognitive scientists and brain studies folk conceptualize the mainly unconscious processes involved in all the activities mentioned above in terms of "decision points" and "decision trees" and are, of course, intensely mindful of the details of the models they are constructing. It thus becomes perfectly natural for them to speak of decisions being made of which the deciding subject is wholly or partially unaware. Now, where did my coffee go? Who decided to drink it? John -- John McCreery The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN Tel. +81-45-314-9324 http://www.wordworks.jp/