Lawrence Shapiro On Embodied Cognition: No Brain In A Vat Here

What is embodied cognition? A view in which cognition isn't from the brain alone, but which involves the brain, the body, and the environment. If you check the dictionary, you will find that cognition is described, in short, as using our minds in interaction with things to acquire knowledge and understanding. We think, we experience, we sense these things.

A philosopher of mind, Rolf Pfeifer has written a book on embodied cognition, titled How the Body Shapes the Way We Think. Others interested in embodied cognition include Alva Noë. Mind Shadows has an article on him here.

In an interview with Ginger Campbell, Shapiro observes that regarding the brain as intermediary between "inside" and "outside"--my terms, not his--tempts us to believe that the brain's function is isolated from the body's.

Epiphenomenalism & Illusion of Conscious Control

Descartes started it all. The modern debate on dualism can be traced back to him. He theorized that effects on physical stuff, matter, on the one hand, were caused by mental stuff, consciousness, on the other. He had a problem, though. How does the mental stuff effect the physical stuff?

After all, you can't lift a glass of water to your mouth simply by willing it.

I'm Away

Well, not fishing, but I am away. I plan to be back April 26th. Click on the random read generator for a chance read until my return.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus Steals Pen in Visit With Chilean President Sebastian Pinera

American Relief Expedition & The Great Soviet Famine

"The typical American reaction to this jaw-dropping moment of history is: How come I've never heard about this? . . .

Is the brain a symphony orchestra without a conductor?

"You want to make hatred illegal? I've sat up here for fifty years and seen nothing but hatred. Everybody they drag in here is full of it, I'm full of it, you're full of it, and now what? You want to make certain varieties illegal? What are we going to do? Get some samples of hate and send them off to the forensic lab? See what kind we're dealing with?" Judge Whittaker J. Stang in Richard Dooling's novel, Brain Storm

" In 1996, to take a break from the grueling work of producing his second novel, A Man in Full, Tom Wolfe hung out with a gaggle of neuroscientists for several weeks. The resulting 7,000-word essay, entitled 'Sorry, but Your Soul Just Died,' [see sidebar Mind Shadows] reminded America once again why Wolfe is our greatest journalist. Amidst humor, dish, details, flair, and lots of exclamation points, he told us what he had learned. The Internet might be nice, said he, '[b]ut something tells me that within ten years, by 2006, the entire digital universe is going to seem like pretty mundane stuff compared to a new technology that right now is but a mere glow radiating from a tiny number of American and Cuban (yes, Cuban) hospitals and laboratories.' The technology is called brain imaging. Wolfe predicted that 'anyone who cares to get up early and catch a truly blinding twenty-first-century dawn will want to keep an eye on it.'

What is it, and why should we care? . . .

Wolfe predicted that, 'in the year 2006 or 2026, some new Nietzsche will step forward to announce: "The self is dead"—except that being prone to the poetic, like Nietzsche I, he will probably say: "The soul is dead." ' And when this happens, 'the lurid carnival that will ensue may make the phrase "the total eclipse of all values" seem tame.' " More

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My comments: This concern is legitimate, and is shared by philosophers such as Thomas Metzinger, author of Being No One and The Ego Tunnel, both of which argue that selves are phenomenal--part of conscious experience--rather than real. He has no religious or spiritual axe to grind, but has expressed concern over future impact on society, culture, morality, and ethics as the findings of neuroscience make their way into public attitudes. Nor can we foresee impact on legal systems.

Whose Fault Is It? Did Your Neurons Make You Do It?

Is free will a religious and metaphysical term while decision to act can be regarded without the spiritual baggage? Or will there always be entanglement whatever the term we use?

"We all believe we exercise free will . . . we decide what to do and when to do it. Free will, however, becomes more complicated when you try to think how it can arise from brain activity.

Do we control our neurons or do they control us? If everything we do starts in the brain, what kind of neural activity would reflect free choice? And how would you feel about your free will if [at one and a half seconds beforehand, you are told that you will act] before you yourself became aware of your own choice?"

Using intracranial recording, scientists have found "neurons in the human brain whose activity predicts decisions to make a movement, challenging conventional notions of free will."