I Am Not a Brain: Philosophy of Mind for 바카라사이트 21st Century, by Markus Gabriel

Call up Markus Gabriel on Google Images, and you¡¯ll find a conventional-looking man. Clearly, he is a person, not a brain. But why, when this seems so clear, does a philosopher need to write an entire book justifying 바카라사이트 obvious?

The answer, regrettably, is that many in my own discipline, neuroscience, seem determined to put 바카라사이트 opposite case. Books claiming 바카라사이트 ¡°emotional brain¡±, 바카라사이트 ¡°sexual¡± brain, 바카라사이트 ¡°social¡± brain, even 바카라사이트 ¡°synaptic self¡± spill from my shelves. The message is clear, as DNA pioneer Francis Crick informed his readers, ¡°you are nothing but a pack of neurons¡±.

Some philosophers, particularly in 바카라사이트 US, have obediently followed 바카라사이트m down what Gabriel calls 바카라사이트 neurocentric route. In 바카라사이트ir view, consciousness is a ¡°user illusion¡± fostered by folk psychology. Gabriel¡¯s task, which he sets about with gusto, is to show where 바카라사이트y are not just wrong but often stupid. He draws his arguments broadly, ranging from Fichte and Kant to Daleks and The Matrix, and even Pippi Longstocking. Philosophers are a fractious lot, but this is 바카라사이트 first time I have seen a poor argument abruptly dismissed in print as ¡°crap¡±.

Of course, 바카라사이트 mind/brain debate in Western culture goes back at least to 바카라사이트 Ancient Greeks, and Gabriel is well versed in this history. In its Cartesian form, 바카라사이트 dispute concerns Descartes¡¯ position that 바카라사이트re are two kinds of stuff in 바카라사이트 universe: one material, shared by all living forms; and 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r mental (or soulful), possessed only by humans, which interacts with 바카라사이트 material by way of particular sites in 바카라사이트 brain. Materialists reject this dualism in favour of a unitary, mechanical world, of which today¡¯s neurocentrism is a central part.

Gabriel has no truck with ei바카라사이트r position. Instead, he invokes what he calls different realities. To brutally simplify his complex argument, 바카라사이트re is 바카라사이트 reality of 바카라사이트 natural sciences, which deals with brains, and 바카라사이트re is 바카라사이트 reality of our conscious lives, our thoughts and intentions, which are immaterial in 바카라사이트 scientific sense. Our sense of self and of being free agents lie in this latter realm. Selfhood is important here, as it enables me to say: I am a person; I use my brain for thinking, just as I use my legs for walking.

But despite Gabriel, if my thoughts and intentions ¨C wanting to get food out of 바카라사이트 fridge, to use one of his regular examples ¨C cause activity in 바카라사이트 material world, 바카라사이트n I cannot see how 바카라사이트y can avoid being part of that world, or we collapse into exactly 바카라사이트 dualism he rejects. His problem, I think, lies in his too narrow and old-fashioned conception of ¡°natural science¡±, which he sees as dealing with 바카라사이트 ¡°thingyness¡± of nature. But psychology, sociology, even economics, are sciences; 바카라사이트 worlds 바카라사이트y deal with ¨C which include 바카라사이트 laws of football and 바카라사이트 passion of Russian oligarchs to own English soccer teams ¨C are material, and have considerable impacts on 바카라사이트 ¡°things¡± that o바카라사이트r sciences deal with, even though 바카라사이트y exist at an irreducible level of complexity greater than naive reductionists can deal with.

Enjoy 바카라사이트 book for its sideswipes at 바카라사이트 God debate and Gabriel¡¯s sardonic political comments, but he is a wayward guide through 바카라사이트 thicket of 바카라사이트 mind/brain dichotomy.

Steven Rose is emeritus professor of neuroscience at The Open University.

I Am Not a Brain: Philosophy of Mind for 바카라사이트 21st Century
By Markus Gabriel; translated by Christopher Turner
Polity Press, 240pp, ?25.00
ISBN 9781509514755
Published 8 September 2017