Mind Brain By John Searle Summary

Consciousness, Thomas Nagel states, “is what makes the mind-body problem really intractable.” Here he refers particularly to phenomenal consciousness, which Block defines as “perceptual experiences,” and Nagel describes as “something that it is to be.’ This experiential element appears to present a challenge to the physicalist assertion that all mental processes are explicable in terms of physical brain states, biochemical reactions and the laws of physics. Frank Jackson presents this argument in his 1982 thesis Epiphenomenal Qualia. Whilst Jackson’s argument occupies a seminal position in philosophy of mind, whether he adds anything new to knowledge of the nature of conscious experience, is debateable. Thomas Nagel’s What is it like to

David Dobbs in the Article “Beautiful Brains” proves the theme that it takes teenage brains longer to mature due to the recent change in impulsivity and adolescent behaviors.

I started my education in Erie, Pennslyviana.I attend McDowell High. I would say that we were one of the richer schools were I live. I am going to talk about my first assignment Brainology. I thought it was very interesting and it thought me a lot about how some people have different mindsets.

In the article titled, “Secrets of the Brain” published in the February 2014 issue of National Geographic, we learn that there have been many advances in understanding the inner workings of our brains. One of the leading scentists, Van Weeden, is working hard to understand the connections that occur within our heads.

According to Drugabuse.gov, Drug addiction is defined as a chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences. Addiction is viewed as brain disease due to the changes that are going on in the brain due to the usage of the drugs, so it alters the structure and how it regularly functions. However, after reading Maia Szalavitz book, “Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary new way of understanding addiction (2016)”, she has a unique view of what brain addiction is and her experience with addiction. In her novel, she views addiction as a learning disorder, like in her case it started early on in her as a child learning to be addicted to other things that develop habits of pleasure, reaction that makes up their addiction. Her memoir is her personal experience with addiction with using reputable journals and study to convey her point on what her rollercoaster with addictions has been starting early on in early childhood.

Human being have a lots of ways to feel the world and perceive information, such as smelling, hearing, touching, and seeing. However, the physical senses are not the only way for individuals to capture correct information, imagination also plays a very significant role while most individuals percept information. In the following article the two authors Oliver Sacks and Malcom Glad well show case how Cognitive association is of significance importance when it comes to sight. Another elaborate importance of cognitive association to sight is eyes of the mind concept ,whereby the writers explores the changes that human body adapts to after losing the eye sight. In the “Mind’s Eye’’, written by Oliver Sacks, the main leading character, John Hull gives a personal narration of the challenges he encountered after losing his sight, a condition he never at any point in his life imagined. He explains how he experienced relocation of some parts of his brain that later enabled him to have visual capabilities. In “The Power of Context’’ writer Malcom Glad well explores whether there is a cognitive relation of how ideas are shared by cultures. He also argues whether it’s possible restrain cultural changes. He points out whether there are chances that repetitive behaviors would result into habits change. Human perception is not only the physical product of the senses, but also the combination of human’s cognitive association and the physical feelings that causes various views from person

Curiosity is implanted in the human mind as it is an element of human nature. The thirst for answers and explanations drive the human mind to reason and deliberate in order to discover an understanding of life itself. It emanates inherently within the brain to solve a puzzle and in return, feel a sense of peace. Philosophers and scientists dedicate their entire lives to solve mysterious questions of the unknown. Throughout the development of distinctive theories, they build on each other to solidify concepts and bear them adjacent to the truth. Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle was a French writer and philosopher who made tremendous contributions to theories of the universe during the mid to late 1600th era. In 1686, he published his findings in the distinctive narrative Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds. His notions were radical in an age were the majority followed an Aristotelian Christian worldview. Radical beliefs were punishable as seen in the history of the many profound scientists that underwent penalty. To avoid such consequences, Fontenelle was clever to present his findings in a different method. He based his work on the Copernicus heliocentric theory of the universe, as well as the theories of Descartes, Tycho, Kepler, and Galileo. Fontenelle wrote a science-fiction novel concerning the conversation between a philosopher, also referred to as a scientist, and a beautiful inquisitive woman named Marquise. This prevented him from being punished as it was not a

The brain is a very complex organ that conducts several mental processes. Kandel’s article “The New Science of Mind” describes how scientist are now able to describe the way brain processes are linked to mental disorders. I recall learning about the different functions of the parts of the brain in anatomy class. The hypothalamus regulates important body’s systems, the amygdala has to do with our emotions, the hippocampus helps us remember things, and the prefrontal cortex which enables personality expression and moderates social behavior, as Kandel portrays in his research. As a psychology major I am interested in the way the brain plays a role in mental disorders. He states that a dysfunction in brain processes is what causes mental illnesses.

Sexton’s poem allowed me to understand what it must feel like to live with a mental illness such as depression. I was quite frightened to find that Sexton constantly wanted to kill herself. Her confessional style of poetry allowed me to understand that this type of mental illness is a reality for people. The way in which Anne Sexton describes her desire for death, allowed me to understand the power depression held on her mind and body. The need to end her life must have meant that dying outweighed any need to live. Anne Sexton had two children and I am shocked she would abandon these two children for an escape from the world. I realised Sexton’s drive to kill herself was greater than the love for her own family. Even though it was selfish of

Caroline Palmer, professor at Ohio State University and has a Music Cognition Lab and a Cognitive Psychologist. She has her PhD and researches about people remembering long sequences of speech and music and how they make these sequences. The target audience for this article is psychologist, researchers and psychology students. The article mentions a lot of psychological studies and cognitive terms. It explains the terms in very simple forms, but the concept might be harder for a regular everyday person to understand.

The understanding of false belief falls into one of the significant stages in the Theory of Mind (ToM) known as the representational stage (Gilibrand, Lam, O’Donnell, 2011). This stage is based on the cognitive ability to understand that others may have a mental representation or belief that is false and will act upon that belief (Bauminger-Zviely, 2013). Due to its importance in cognitive and social development, the progression of the representational stage of ToM in young children has been of strong interest (Tomasello, 2009). False belief tasks (FBTs) have been conducted in order to test whether this level of development has been achieved (Dennett, 1978). Consequently, studies have demonstrated controversial findings. Several findings suggest that infants consistently fail at traditional FBTs until after the age of four (Wimmer & Perner, 1983; Baron-Cohen, Leslie & Frith, 1985; Wellman, Cross and Watson, 2001). Although conceptual change theorists propose that children who fail this task have not yet developed a representational mind due to insufficient cognitive development theory (Gopnik & Wellman, 1994; Perner, 1991), early competence studies have shown that this failure can be attributed to other factors such as linguistic and processing abilities that are unrelated to the core competence (de Villiers & de Villiers, 2000; Baillargeon, Scott, & He, 2010; Carpenter, Call & Tomasello, 2002).

According Italian Scientist, Rita Levi-Montalcini, “It is imperfection - not perfection - that is the end result of the program written into that formidably complex engine that is the human brain, and of the influences exerted upon us by the environment and whoever takes care of us during the long years of our physical, psychological and intellectual development” (Montalcini). The human brain is an enigmatic marvel that is constantly being researched and explored to new depths. I have chosen Chapter Seven: Cognition, Language, and Intelligence because I was quite intrigued about the different mental processes and cognitive functions such as perception, attention, memory, and reasoning. Our everyday lives revolves around cognition, mental actions or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses (259). Jill Bolte Taylor, an accomplished neuroanatomist, experienced a traumatic stroke which caused certain function errors in her brain such as the ability to process sensory information, tap into memories, and use language. The most tragic part was that she was unable to recognize who or what “G.G”, her mother was. She temporarily did not understand the major significance or what the concept of what a mother was. Dr. Taylor had to be retaught the different formal, natural concepts and mental, auditory imagery all over again. If I was to lose my ability to recognize my mother, I would be completely devastated because I heavily rely on

Phillips Brooks once said, “Be patient and understanding. Life is too short to be vengeful or malicious. In Amy Bloom’s “Silver Water”, Boom shows how Rose once led a normal life, but later suffered from a mental illness that led her life to go unstable and take her life away through overdosing on pills. In contrast, in Tobias Wolff’s short story, “Bullet in the Brain” an unconcerned book critique, by the name of Anders, dies from a bullet to the brain because of his reactions towards the criminals in the bank robbery. While the setting in both stories are distinctive, both stories achieve to show that life is too short. However, whereas Bloom portrays the negative effects that can lead with a mental illness; through Rose, Wolff shows the negative effects that can lead by being a critique person; through Anders, differentiating the two in distinctive ways which can be seen in the characters, symbolism, and theme.

Theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to differentiate one’s own mental state from others and therefore, influence the behaviour accordingly. Mental states comprise of the individual’s desires, beliefs and intentions. ToM is considered to be a milestone in psychosocial development as pre-schoolers at the age of 4 or 5 tend to be able to recognise that not everyone perceive the same reality as they do (Wellman, Cross & Watson, 2001). This is known as false-belief and is an important skill in comprehending and predicting people’s emotions and actions to construct a meaningful relationship. Many have argued that ToM coincides with language acquisition providing a mechanism to apprehend mental states within one’s cognition (Karmiloff-Smith,

The Chinese Room Argument is Searle's refutation of Strong Artificial Intelligence. The idea will be that we have an entity that will pass a Turing Test, but which clearly lacks intelligence, therefore it represents Weak Artificial Intelligence. The Chinese Room argument Searle created has an English speaker in a room with chinese writing and symbols and rules in English for translating a words into a symbol. Just because the person can translate a symbol into a word does not make the room intelligent. The answers come out right, but that