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Fred: The question is whether we humans are ever able to truly discern and evaluate reality and/or objective truth and make rational decisions and choices, that may be contrary to our emotions and/or preconceived beliefs/perceptions and behave accordingly—whether we can cognitively change/modify emotions/beliefs/perceptions through downward causation.
MM: The question you pose is not possible if, as I suggest, emotions are how our bodies [and minds] interpret the world, including our own contemplated actions, as either good or bad for us.
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Bingo—and that’s why nonhuman, non-sentient creatures, that actually are automatons of a sort, don’t truly consider such questions.
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MM: Your belief in God seems to compell you to find a soul-like mechanism that some of us are supposedly endowed with that can act in opposition to our nature.
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Nonsense. However, I’d guess that it’s your own belief in chance/randomness that compels you to see and interpret things as you do—that we humans are merely creatures “driven by emotion to do what we do . . . driven to seek an emotional payoff for it.†And that’s why one can never attach any meaning or significance to whatever you, MM, happen to believe or say here, since, as you declare and believe, you’re merely a creature “driven by emotion to do what we do . . . driven to seek an emotional payoff for it.†Hello?
(Although I find your incessant allusions to “God,†while mostly irrelevant and mildly annoying, somewhat amusing, and perhaps a bit revealing.)