Three possibilities come to mind:

Is there an evolutionary purpose?

Does it arise as a consequence of our mental activities, a sort of side effect of our thinking?

Is it given a priori (something we have to think in order to think at all)?

  • tal@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    After all, I don’t ascribe my heartbeat to an external force, but I am aware that I don’t will it.

    No, but you have the ability to sense your heartbeat, so you can tell that it’s there.

    You don’t have the ability to sense electromagnetic emissions in the X-ray frequency range, so you can’t tell that they’re there. You wouldn’t know if X-rays of a given intensity were present at a given moment. It’s like asking “why is there the illusion that there are no X-rays” when you wouldn’t expect to feel differently regardless of their presence or non-presence.