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second shot at mechanism (or maybe the third, or fourth)

A thing can be viewed a machine by us only (?) in virtue of how it is seen as an instrument, that is, as something other than ourselves that acts not out of desire but is made to act so as to serve our purposes (in other words, to satisfy our desires).  But that means that we cannot be viewed by ourselves as a machine.  But if we cannot seem to be a machine, then claiming that we are such is to say that our appearing to be otherwise is an illusion.  But if that is an illusion, then how could a machine even be a machine.... it too would only seem to be a machine--no?

So isn't positing a mechanistic universe kind of like looking at the universe and forgetting that you, by looking at it in such a way, are claiming NOT to be part of it?  I guess one can say that in this case the machine works for no one.  And why isn't that claim special pleading?

And isn't saying that humans are machines a kind of denial that they act as they do because they desire something?  It may seem that they do so, but isn't there something inherently non-mechanical about desire?

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