A Look Inside the Brain-Housing Area

With the definition of cognitive neuroscience in mind, it is important to consider how the body is affected by the mind. While the mind-body issue is still not fully settled it has advanced to where we know that the mind is considered psychological and the body is neurological (Solso,2008) psychologists and philosophers are still debating wether they coexist

One, such as Descartes, might argue that because the brain has a physical presence, it is solely an entity of the body; the mind consists only of the intangibles. My response to such a statement is that because the mind exists only in the synapses that comprise the brain, the mind and brain are inseparable and therefore a single entity. Moods and complex emotions are heavily influenced by physical properties of the brain, such as the levels of certain chemicals. The loss of certain components of the brain can lead to an alteration of the mind as well. For example, Alzheimer’s disease causes dementia, a severe alteration of the mind, by destroying certain neurons and synapses. No other organ or appendage of the human body possesses this quality. The removal of a spleen or loss of a limb cannot permanently alter the mind on a primary level.

Today I’ll be discussing Patricia Smith Churchland’s Are Mental States Irreducible to Neurobiological States. According to The Norton Introduction to Philosophy, “[Churchland] is known for her work connecting neuroscience and traditional philosophical topics such as consciousness, the self, free will and ethics” (T.N.I.P, 424).

I read the article, “Secrets of the Brain”, found in the February 2014 issue of National Geographic written by Carl Zimmer. I chose this subject because I have been fascinated with the brain and how it works. The research of the brain has been ongoing for many centuries now. The history in this article is interesting. It explained how scientists used to understand the brain and its inner workings. For example, “in the ancient world physicians believed that the brain was made of phlegm. Aristotle looked on it as a refrigerator, cooling of the fiery heart. From his time through the Renaissance, anatomists declared with great authority that our perceptions, emotions, reasoning, and actions were all the result of “animal spirits”—mysterious, unknowable vapors that swirled through cavities in our head and traveled through our bodies.” (Zimmer, p. 38)

Sure the brain has the actual chemical processes and functions, but the mind holds the reasoning behinds actions, and the complex feelings a person has. It is basically what makes a person who he is, and controls his actions as a person. The brain only tells the body to carry out these actions.

The human mind is the center of a person’s reasoning and thoughts and today it has gone from a mystery to a unique feature in the human anatomy. The mind is home to one's consciousness, perception, thinking, judgement, and memory. The brain also controls a person's muscle movement, breathing, and even their body temperature. Its anatomy is so complex that many doctors and scientists are continually learning and understanding how the different features of the brain work together to function as one of the body’s most interesting organs. Those who do study the way the brain and the nervous system function together are quite brilliant and are one of the most dedicated group of doctors. There are many fields

According to many different philosophers such as Descartes and Locke there has to be more to the mind than just the materialistic view. There are many different parts to the brain which make it a whole according to science, so thinking about the brain from a philosophical standpoint, there must be different parts to make up the minds identity. According to John Perry, the memories and personality traits as well as beliefs and intellectual skills make up a personal identity and the body is just a vessel that holds this identity (TP, 197). Certain people might believe that if one were to get a brain transplant they would wake up the same person they were before they went in for the surgery. I, on the other hand concur with Perry and the idea

Our brains create our mental state, we can think ourselves into a state of mind. For example, your body may be exhausted during exercise but if your brain keeps repeating that you can continue then you can force your body to carry on.

What separates the human brain from the human mind? While the workings of the brain contribute to the mind, “the mind consists of the intangible realm of thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and consciousness” (Marder). That humans can envision the future separates them from all other species. In the same way, humans are the only species that can look critically at the past and to think about abstract ideas. Thinking on a continuum of time - from backward to forward - sets humans apart and influences societies everywhere and everyday. To be human is to imagine the future as well as to evaluate the past.

The secondary form of the mind-brain conflict is the concept of dualism. Dualism is the idea that instead of one substance, there are two different substances. This concept tells individuals that there is spiritual dimension to a person’s mind. This causes the consciousness in the mind, and a possible enduring attribute. Dualism also believes that a person has a physical body and mind that work as one substance. While the non-physical aspects count as the second substance (Philosophy 1). So to put it in simplest terms dualist deny that the brain and mind are the exact same thing (Caleff 1).

The brain works off of a few different things: there is cognitive functioning of the brain; your ability to control your thoughts through focus, and there is chemical functioning of the brain; the chemical components that create the thoughts and synapse throughout the brain. Every idea, emotion, thought, and experience recorded in the brain is going to be a simple bolt of electricity shot through a network of neurons.

How to define the mind? Philosophers and scientists have been trying to answer this question for many years. Some believe that the mind is an essence that enters when we come into being and leave when we die. While others believe that the mind is just a physical entity called the brain. The quest to find out if our brain is our mind or if they are separate entities has been puzzling us for ages. For centuries now philosophers, neuroscientists, psychologist, computer scientists, etc. have been debating over this topic trying to decide on a solution. This might seem like an unanswerable question, like many questions that philosophers like to pose, but there are theories that can answer this looming question. The most famous theory that stems from this question is Rene Descartes’s mind-body theory. This theory states that the mind and the brain are two completely separate substances because they have entirely different processes or characteristics (Heil, 15-17).

(brain) work in a more complex way to the other areas of belief, comparing humans to

The mind is very complex. The brain controls every action a person takes and the way one feels toward life as a whole. Psychology makes people question “Who are we? What produces our thoughts? Our feelings? Our Actions? And how are we to understand and manage those around us?”(Myers 2). The mind allows a person to have memories of past events, a stream of consciousness, and react to a situation by emotions. Some people even have mental health disorders, in which the mind is impaired.

“…. If there was a soul, brain damage could not also damage our emotional feelings: but it does. Electrical stimulation of the causes actual desire to arise instantly. If memory, behavior, and emotions are all controlled by the physical brain, what is a soul for? Any free will it exerts is promptly overridden by biological chemistry….”