[ExI] will as essence

[Damien Broderick]

At 11:20 AM 6/23/2007 -0700, Jef wrote:

> > Your will is your essence at any given moment. It is not a "model", nor is
> > it an "abstract entity". Your will is perhaps the only concrete,
> > non-abstract thing in all the world.
>
>... I know of no effective
>means for bridging the gap entailed by the assumption of such an
>essence.

Especially since Benjamin Libet and others showed that the conscious 
experience of willing an act lags by some 200 to 500 millisecs the 
brain's activation of the relevant volitional processes or "readiness 
potential". Even granting that willing is a real experience, and 
sometimes very vivid, it can't be "your essence" unless your essence 
is to be a machine that only belatedly notices what it's up to. (Many 
here would agree with that, of course.)

Damien Broderick