You are not your brain--a misguided view of consciousness

ragdish
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You are not your brain--a misguided view of consciousness

I read this article on Sam Harris' website:

http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/you-are-not-your-brain/

I find those who take a stance against neuroscientific explanations of consciousness to be in the same camp as those who reject evolution and support creationism.

The author, Gordy Slack, specifically focuses on the late Francis Crick whom along with Christoff Koch proposed a theory of consciousness based on research in vision. That work culminated in a theory of how the brain binds entities via thalamo-cortical interactions--a key part of understanding the neural nature of consciousness. Crick (along with several other neuroscientists eg. Koch, Edelman, Damasio, Greenfield, etc..) does indeed state in his book The Astonishing Hypothesis that consciousness is a process which arises from neuronal interaction that requires an interacting body and an outside world. I think Slack has a complete misunderstanding of what Crick had stated.

Neuroscience research into the mind emerges from scientific investigations at multiple levels from the molecular to the systems level (ie. brain lesion analysis, clinical Neurology, functional imaging). Slack mentions none of this.

Slack is not a scientist but a "science" writer. Although he personally takes the secular side, he says that religion and science are different ways of knowing. Other atheists (eg. PZ Myers) have rightfully ripped into him over the evolution/intelligent design debate. Yet this latest article takes the cake. It truly shows his scientific ignorance. I'm surprised Sam Harris (who is doing his doctorate in Cognitive Neuroscience) placed this article on his website.

 


Answers in Gene...
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Dude writes like a

Dude writes like a Unitarian...[/rimshot]

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Diagoras23
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It's a no brainer

We are our brains.
I hope to retire as a brain in a Jar in a huge combat robot.
I am ok.
Really.


Ken G.
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Brain Science

    ragdish writes,you are not your brain a misguided view of consciousness I feel the same way,have you ever checked out Science Podcasters,the woman who runs this site is a brain Doctor,check it out docartemis.com/sciencepodcasters/ she has a lot of good pod cast

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DamnDirtyApe
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Ken G. wrote:    ragdish

Ken G. wrote:

    ragdish writes,you are not your brain a misguided view of consciousness I feel the same way,have you ever checked out Science Podcasters,the woman who runs this site is a brain Doctor,check it out docartemis.com/sciencepodcasters/ she has a lot of good pod cast

Ahh!  Punctuation, please, Mr. Walken!

"The whole conception of God is a conception derived from ancient Oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men."
--Bertrand Russell