One small example I came across was how we catch frisbees. (Going from memory here, but might try to find the video later)
The video I saw started with a dog catching the frisbee. Being that I used to have a border collie that loved catching frisbees I was instantly hooked. What you will notice is that the dog will match the speed of the frisbee as they run and keep it nearly straight above their heads until they catch it.
Then they did the same thing with a human catching a frisbee. Humans do the same thing. We match our speed to the speed of the frisbee. No one is trained to do this. No one was told to catch the frisbee this way. We just do it without thinking about it.
It’s a small example, but it has always stuck with me.
Consciousness is a clever phenomenon. A person might decide to choose a series of numbers, after awhile as boredom starts to set in and the mind wanders, you start to pick numbers without really thinking about it.
Consciousness cannot be separated from the body (in this world) and it can’t be reduced to bodily function either.
It’s been a long time since I’ve taken a psychology course - so I’m sure I’m leaving out basic vocabulary for much of this. But there must be something of a continuum of “voluntariness” for our muscle actions. We have the entirely involuntary actions like the beating heart. We have the entirely voluntary ones, like my choosing to raise my hand. But then there are all the semi-voluntary things too that hover in both worlds. We can control our diaphragms and choose to hold our breath for a minute if we wish, and yet we obviously keep breathing all day and night long without having to concentrate on it at all 99% of the time - so it’s a good ways into the involuntary sort of action, thankfully. Blinking would be the same thing. Maybe this is more a continuum, than a clean 3rd category. My driving to work on “mental autopilot” as it were just means that my normally voluntary movement of my hands and arms grasping the steering wheel, just became a slight fraction toward the semi-voluntary in that continuum as I devoted almost none of my higher concentrations to it while I was actually doing it. Riding a bike - same thing. What a dull activity that would be if we were always having to concentrate on keeping our balance rather than just letting our bike-conditioned reflexes take care of that for us while we enjoy the ride and talk with a friend.
Also, do you think it is philosophically incorrect to not hold people responsible for their actions when they are suffering from mental illness, such as schizophrenia?