[ExI] Minds, Personalities, and Love

[Jef Allbright]

On 6/26/07, gts <gts_2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 26 Jun 2007 15:23:22 -0400, Jef Allbright <jef at jefallbright.net>
> wrote:
>
> >> Your date wants to know [your will], because that's who you are.
> >
> >
> > Okay, this is interesting, and possibly closer to my own view than I
> > thought..  Are you saying that knowledge of these values informs
> > another person's model of your will, such that they essentially know
> > you the person?
>
> Yes, I suppose so.

And what is the basis of the values that inform the model of the will
in the mind of the observer?

Would you agree with me that all of one's values appear to be
physically determined, by one's genetics, the environment, and the who
complex chain of physical interaction leading up to any particular
moment when one's values are queried, thus informing the observer's
model of their will, such that they essentially know the person?

As a specific example, would you and I agree that in the case of a
person who valued dancing (performing, rather than as being
entertained by it) this value would be related to physical
characteristics such as good health, strength, adequate muscular
control, both legs approximately the same length (let's not bring in
prosthetics for this discussion) and so on?

Sorry for this being so drawn out, but you know how it goes between
us.  I'm going in this direction only far enough to test whether you
and I both agree that the person's state is entirely determined in
physical terms, nothing essentially mystical in the background.  I
think this is a safe bet, but want to confirm agreement on this before
proceeding to ask a question assessing how our understanding might
differ.

I'm just being thorough here, not tricky.

- Jef