OK, this isn't exactly a New Year's resolution blog post. But I don't believe in resolutions. Those of the spiritual variety, at least. I've expressed my disbelief here, here, and here.
A fresh thought, though... I'm up with that.
I enjoyed this letter in the yearend issue of New Scientist magazine.
From Iain Petrie
Neurophilosopher Patricia Churchland argues that it can be difficult to accept that "you're just your brain" (30 November, p. 30). So it would seem.
When she says, "I've made my peace with my brain," it rather suggests that she regards herself as an entity distinct from her brain.
Even saying "my brain has made peace with itself" would imply, through the use of the possessive determiner "my," that there is not a one-to-one identiy relation between self and brain.
Perhaps the best phrase would have been "this brain is at peace with itself."
Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK
Not a new idea, that brains are us. Just one that is both almost certainly true and exceedingly difficult to internalize, make real, live as if it were true.
For me, it's the key to living a relaxed life that is free of excessive existential Woody Allen'ish anxiety: Oh, no! I'm going to die! I want to live forever! What shall I do?!
Well, the answer to the last question is easy. Nothing. There's nothing you can do. You are your brain; your brain is you. In fact, there is no brain and you. Just brain/you.
"You" (and "I") are higher level abstractions conjured up by neuronal goings-on in the brain. No brain, no you. So death is nothing to worry about.
There never was a distinct "you" that could die. Just a brain that, like all living things, dies. Maybe this doesn't sound like a cheery New Year's greeting, but I find it uplifting.
Happy New Year!
(I wrote about Churchland's New Scientist interview in "Benefits of realizing you're just a brain.")
Hi Brian,
I just hope we're all pleasantly surprised to discover when we die that "soul" is real and we have another shot at life--after all that is what you believed for about 30 years.
Posted by: DJ Woods | January 02, 2014 at 01:12 PM
DJ, hey, I hope that too. Would indeed be a pleasant surprise. Not one I'm counting on, though. It also would be unpleasant to get a glimpse of the non-existent void after life, and think "Damn, no more living; I should have lived more vibrantly without religion while I was alive."
Posted by: Brian Hines | January 02, 2014 at 01:16 PM
I wonder what neuroscience would say about this man's ability to interact with wild animals - "the lion whisperer". Why is this so rare? Are we so programmed with fear and negative passions that we don't have this love for wild animals which is so powerful that it changes their behaviour toward us. This is a kind of 'vibrant' lifestyle I admire so much.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNCzSfv4hX8#t=847
Posted by: just me | January 02, 2014 at 01:47 PM
A brain generating consciousness is an absurd idea. Where is the proof? Where is the scientific evidence?
Posted by: some_guy | January 02, 2014 at 03:07 PM
The evidence is the fact that your brain just wrote the words that you shared in your comment. Aren't you conscious of what you just did?
Posted by: Brian Hines | January 02, 2014 at 03:17 PM