Self-Consciousness and "Split" Brains

Self-Consciousness and Author: Elizabeth Schechter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192537512
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
Could a single human being ever have multiple conscious minds? Some human beings do. The corpus callosum is a large pathway connecting the two hemispheres of the brain. In the second half of the twentieth century a number of people had this pathway cut through as a treatment for epilepsy. They became colloquially known as split-brain subjects. After the two hemispheres of the brain are cortically separated in this way, they begin to operate unusually independently of each other in the realm of thought, action, and conscious experience, almost as if each hemisphere now had a mind of its own. Philosophical discussion of the split-brain cases has overwhelmingly focused on questions of psychological identity in split-brain subjects, questions like: how many subjects of experience is a split-brain subject? How many intentional agents? How many persons? On the one hand, under experimental conditions, split-brain subjects often act in ways difficult to understand except in terms of each of them having two distinct streams or centers of consciousness. Split-brain subjects thus evoke the duality intuition: that a single split-brain human being is somehow composed of two thinking, experiencing, and acting things. On the other hand, a split-brain subject nonetheless seems like one of us, at the end of the day, rather than like two people sharing one body. In other words, split-brain subjects also evoke the unity intuition: that a split-brain subject is one person. Elizabeth Schechter argues that there are in fact two minds, subjects of experience, and intentional agents inside each split-brain human being: right and left. On the other hand, each split-brain subject is nonetheless one of us. The key to reconciling these two claims is to understand the ways in which each of us is transformed by self-consciousness.

Self-Consciousness and "Split" Brains

Self-Consciousness and Author: Elizabeth Schechter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192537512
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 482

Get Book Here

Book Description
Could a single human being ever have multiple conscious minds? Some human beings do. The corpus callosum is a large pathway connecting the two hemispheres of the brain. In the second half of the twentieth century a number of people had this pathway cut through as a treatment for epilepsy. They became colloquially known as split-brain subjects. After the two hemispheres of the brain are cortically separated in this way, they begin to operate unusually independently of each other in the realm of thought, action, and conscious experience, almost as if each hemisphere now had a mind of its own. Philosophical discussion of the split-brain cases has overwhelmingly focused on questions of psychological identity in split-brain subjects, questions like: how many subjects of experience is a split-brain subject? How many intentional agents? How many persons? On the one hand, under experimental conditions, split-brain subjects often act in ways difficult to understand except in terms of each of them having two distinct streams or centers of consciousness. Split-brain subjects thus evoke the duality intuition: that a single split-brain human being is somehow composed of two thinking, experiencing, and acting things. On the other hand, a split-brain subject nonetheless seems like one of us, at the end of the day, rather than like two people sharing one body. In other words, split-brain subjects also evoke the unity intuition: that a split-brain subject is one person. Elizabeth Schechter argues that there are in fact two minds, subjects of experience, and intentional agents inside each split-brain human being: right and left. On the other hand, each split-brain subject is nonetheless one of us. The key to reconciling these two claims is to understand the ways in which each of us is transformed by self-consciousness.

From Neurons to Self-consciousness

From Neurons to Self-consciousness PDF Author: Bernard Korzeniewski
Publisher: Gateway Bookshelf
ISBN: 9781616142278
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In the end, the author suggests that as more is learned about the working of the brain, philosophical problems that have caused centuries of speculation will simply be resolved by the facts of neurophysiology. --Book Jacket.

Brain, Mind, and the Structure of Reality

Brain, Mind, and the Structure of Reality PDF Author: Paul L. Nunez
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199914648
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
Does the brain create the mind, or is some external entity involved? This book synthesizes ideas borrowed from philosophy, religion, and science. Topics range widely from brain imagining of thought processes to quantum mechanics and the essential role of information in brains and physical systems.

The Brain, the Mind and the Self

The Brain, the Mind and the Self PDF Author: Arnold Goldberg
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317657969
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
Psychoanalysis enjoyed an enormous popularity at one time, but has recently fallen out of favor as new psychiatric medications have dominated the treatment of mental illness and a new interest in the brain and neuroscience begins to dominate the theory as to the cause and cure of mental illness. How do we distinguish between the brain, the mind and the self? In his new book, Arnold Goldberg approaches this question from a psychoanalytic perspective, and examines how recent research findings can shed light on it. He repositions psychoanalysis as an interpretive science that is a different activity to most other sciences that are considered empirical. Giving clear coverage of the various psychoanalytic models of the mind and the self, Goldberg examines how these theories fare against neuroscientific evidence, and what implications these have for psychoanalytic clinical practice. The Brain, the Mind and the Self: A psychoanalytic road map sets up evidence-based, robust psychoanalytic theory and practice that will give psychoanalysts, social workers and practicing psychologists a valuable insight into the future of psychoanalysis. Arnold Goldberg, M.D. was born and raised in Chicago and trained at the University of Illinois, Michael Reese Hospital and the Institute for Psychoanalysis in Chicago. He is recently retired from the Cynthia Oudejans Harris MD chair, and Professor of Psychiatry at Rush Medical Center.

Self Comes to Mind

Self Comes to Mind PDF Author: Antonio Damasio
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307379493
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
A leading neuroscientist explores with authority, with imagination, and with unparalleled mastery how the brain constructs the mind and how the brain makes that mind conscious. Antonio Damasio has spent the past thirty years researching and and revealing how the brain works. Here, in his most ambitious and stunning work yet, he rejects the long-standing idea that consciousness is somehow separate from the body, and presents compelling new scientific evidence that posits an evolutionary perspective. His view entails a radical change in the way the history of the conscious mind is viewed and told, suggesting that the brain’s development of a human self is a challenge to nature’s indifference. This development helps to open the way for the appearance of culture, perhaps one of our most defining characteristics as thinking and self-aware beings.

The Unity of Consciousness

The Unity of Consciousness PDF Author: Tim Bayne
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191639885
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
In The Unity of Consciousness Tim Bayne draws on philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience in defence of the claim that consciousness is unified. In the first part of the book Bayne develops an account of what it means to say that consciousness is unified. Part II applies this account to a variety of cases - drawn from both normal and pathological forms of experience - in which the unity of consciousness is said to break down. Bayne argues that the unity of consciousness remains intact in each of these cases. Part III explores the implications of the unity of consciousness for theories of consciousness, for the sense of embodiment, and for accounts of the self. In one of the most comprehensive examinations of the topic available, The Unity of Consciousness draws on a wide range of findings within philosophy and the sciences of the mind to construct an account of the unity of consciousness that is both conceptually sophisticated and scientifically informed.

Neuroscience and Religion

Neuroscience and Religion PDF Author: Volney P. Gay
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780739133927
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
This is a unique set of multidisciplinary reflections on how the neurosciences shape our understanding of religious experience and religious institutions. Twelve scholars and scientists assess how advances in the neurosciences affect our traditional sense of mind, self, and soul.

How the SELF Controls Its BRAIN

How the SELF Controls Its BRAIN PDF Author: John C. Eccles
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 364249224X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
In this book the author has collected a number of his important works and added an extensive commentary relating his ideas to those of other prominentnames in the consciousness debate. The view presented here is that of a convinced dualist who challenges in a lively and humorous way the prevailing materialist "doctrines" of many recent works. Also included is a new attempt to explain mind-brain interaction via a quantum process affecting the release of neurotransmitters. John Eccles received a knighthood in 1958 and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine/Physiology in 1963. He has numerous other awards honouring his major contributions to neurophysiology.

Self Control in Society, Mind, and Brain

Self Control in Society, Mind, and Brain PDF Author: Ran Hassin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019974162X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 575

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Book Description
This book presents social, cognitive and neuroscientific approaches to the study of self-control, connecting recent work in cognitive and social psychology with recent advances in cognitive and social neuroscience. In bringing together multiple perspectives on self-control dilemmas from internationally renowned researchers in various allied disciplines, this is the first single-reference volume to illustrate the richness, depth, and breadth of the research in the new field of self control.

The Brain, the Mind and the Self

The Brain, the Mind and the Self PDF Author: Arnold Goldberg
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317657977
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 173

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Book Description
Psychoanalysis enjoyed an enormous popularity at one time, but has recently fallen out of favor as new psychiatric medications have dominated the treatment of mental illness and a new interest in the brain and neuroscience begins to dominate the theory as to the cause and cure of mental illness. How do we distinguish between the brain, the mind and the self? In his new book, Arnold Goldberg approaches this question from a psychoanalytic perspective, and examines how recent research findings can shed light on it. He repositions psychoanalysis as an interpretive science that is a different activity to most other sciences that are considered empirical. Giving clear coverage of the various psychoanalytic models of the mind and the self, Goldberg examines how these theories fare against neuroscientific evidence, and what implications these have for psychoanalytic clinical practice. The Brain, the Mind and the Self: A psychoanalytic road map sets up evidence-based, robust psychoanalytic theory and practice that will give psychoanalysts, social workers and practicing psychologists a valuable insight into the future of psychoanalysis. Arnold Goldberg, M.D. was born and raised in Chicago and trained at the University of Illinois, Michael Reese Hospital and the Institute for Psychoanalysis in Chicago. He is recently retired from the Cynthia Oudejans Harris MD chair, and Professor of Psychiatry at Rush Medical Center.