In a recent post about consciousness,

I vote consciousness to be the average state of most brains where they confuse the model they have of themselves for themselves, and operate with that assumption of identity on call.

The idea of a “conscious decision” is a product of the cortex, I think the frontal specifically, and is many times (though I’ll concede not all times) an assumption of “will” that the frontal cortex makes after an action occurs. Not all actions, and perhaps not many at all on a daily basis, are actions of conscious will. Rather they are lesser-conscious actions that are later, if considered post-hoc, appended an illusion of “will” to them.

I would submit that the only “fully consciously willed” choices we make are those we more deeply contemplate, where before actions are chosen they are considered through an awareness of cause, effect, our identities, etcetera. The more difficult a choice is to make, the more consciously-willed it probably is. I would suggest to think of this not in terms of black-and-white, but in a gradient, where a locus of activity in higher faculties are considered more consciously-willed.


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