/lit/ - Literature

1. The universe is material and causal. Every new state is a result of the previous state. The universe is a precise machine working in the only possible way it can work and is a perfect machine and no paradoxes exist.

2. The human mind, being material, is of course causal. Humans are echoes caught in the machine of the universe.

3. All experiences (including agency) are physical mental states.

4. We experience agency over our behavior. This feels like internal causality.

5. The brain is not a unitary phenomenon. It is in fact made up of many different parts that influence each other.

6. The experience of agency *is* internal causality. One neural system causes another one to cause behavior.

7. Therefore, our behavior is the latter link in a variably complex internal chain of causality.

8. To say we have agency over our behavior is true, when you include the causal precursors as part of "us".

9. The internal precursors themselves are causal.

10. However, the internal precursors to behavior are not apparent, or readily comprehensible.

11. As long as the internal precursors are not apparent or readily comprehensible, the cause of behavior is not apparent.

12. As long as the cause of behavior is not apparent, claiming that we have agency is sensible. As long as the cause of behavior is not readily comprehensible, agency is a viable model for how people act.