In his argument about whether the rabbit and fox are disgreeing as to the rabbit's proper place, Eliezer says "The rabbit is just eating grass, like a rock rolls downhill and like hot air rises." While not wanting to support the idea that rabbit and fox maintain separate "should-like" intellectual constructs on Bugs' fate, the rabbit's actions are quite distinct from the re-actions of the rock or hot air. The rock's and gas' actions are entirely determined by the circumstances in which they (do not) find themselves.
The nervous system which partially comprises the rabbit gives it the possibility of choosing, admittedly within fairly strict constraints, whether and when it eats a particular patch of grass and whether its environment encourages or discourages exposing itself to even attempt eating grass (remember the fox!).
Those who believe that this choice is in principle as predictable as the movement of rock and hot air are referred to Edelman's quick survey of selectional biological systems (immune system, CNS) in "Second Nature". Rabbits and foxes are usefully thought of as capable of "intending" (Dennett, "The Intentional Stance"); human's seem capable of, if not addicted to, glorifying "intention" as "prescription": "will" as "should".
In his argument about whether the rabbit and fox are disgreeing as to the rabbit's proper place, Eliezer says "The rabbit is just eating grass, like a rock rolls downhill and like hot air rises." While not wanting to support the idea that rabbit and fox maintain separate "should-like" intellectual constructs on Bugs' fate, the rabbit's actions are quite distinct from the re-actions of the rock or hot air. The rock's and gas' actions are entirely determined by the circumstances in which they (do not) find themselves.
The nervous system which partially comprises the rabbit gives it the possibility of choosing, admittedly within fairly strict constraints, whether and when it eats a particular patch of grass and whether its environment encourages or discourages exposing itself to even attempt eating grass (remember the fox!).
Those who believe that this choice is in principle as predictable as the movement of rock and hot air are referred to Edelman's quick survey of selectional biological systems (immune system, CNS) in "Second Nature". Rabbits and foxes are usefully thought of as capable of "intending" (Dennett, "The Intentional Stance"); human's seem capable of, if not addicted to, glorifying "intention" as "prescription": "will" as "should".