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cejensen's picture

Love? Free will?

Submitted by cejensen on Fri, 12/04/2009 - 7:49pm.

On Wednesday we discussed the idea that feelings of love are chemical reactions. Although I believe it, I struggled with this idea. After talking with my friends, I realized that it was because to explain a such a strong and complex emotion in terms of chemicals makes it sound clinical, and seems to trivialize it. It's important to remember that even though we can (and should) explain human emotion biologically, this doesn't mean that what we feel isn't there or isn't important. Love is still wonderful, and sadness is still painful, even if they are chemical reactions.
It does make me wonder about the idea of free will though. It seems to me like something "more than the sum of it's parts," and yet I know it must be biologically based. How do we explain the concept of fee will? Do we have a free will?

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