Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Still a mystery: How does the brain make the mind?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

I don't actually think it's a mystery any more but I recognize that not everybody will agree with me on this. In this article we read a review of Michael Gazzaniga's book The Consciousness Instinct: Unraveling the Mystery of How the Brain Makes the Mind. According to the book, "Specialized capacities come up one at a time, he explains, and through time they are stitched together to give the illusion of a unified consciousness." That's fair enough, so far as it goes - but whether we think of this as separate and specialized or whole and organic is strictly a matter of perspective - from where I sit, consciousness is experience, and the best explanation for that experience is found in the description of the human brain.

Today: 0 Total: 13 [Direct link] [Share]


Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

Copyright 2024
Last Updated: Oct 14, 2024 02:22 a.m.

Canadian Flag Creative Commons License.

Force:yes