In this two Christian philosophers, Richard Swinburne and Tim O'Connor, discussed the concept of neuroscience and the soul. The first philosopher, Swinburne, believed in the idea of substance dualism while O’Conner supported the argument for emergent individualism. Swinburne starts off by saying one’s physical body is simply the vehicle we interact with the world while the real essence of a person lies within their soul. When it comes to Swinburne’s belief on the soul after death I am reminded of Phaedo and how death will only bring about separation of body and soul.
The next expert Kolbert introduces is Laurence Steinberg, a professor of psychology at Temple. Steinberg states that the enlarged nucleus accumbens, which he calls the “pleasure center” is at fault (Steinberg 4). Again, an excellent metaphor is used to create a powerful image. The reader can picture this “pleasure center” inside someone’s head. It helps them understand that Steinberg can see inside the brain.
James Watson once said, “The brain is the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe”. It is responsible for every single movement in our body; from thinking, learning, breathing, creating memories and more. But the brain is not always perfect. We all have occasional “brain farts” or misperceptions of the world around us. Sometimes we believe that we have experienced vivid moments that we have never actually been through.
The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains The Shallows by Nicholas Carr demonstrates how the internet has been combined to our everyday lives, as well as altering our brain and the way we think. Carr’s goal is to assist his readers understanding of the significance that the internet has on people’s individuality. Carr emphasizes the fear that the internet is doing harm to the brain. He uses historical and scientific studies to prove that the internet is transforming our brain.
Have you ever began to read something whether it be an article, story, or any piece of writing and quickly realized you have no idea what the writer is speaking about? The obvious answer is yes, and readers have come to appreciate the type of authors who make things clear and engaging for any non-specialist audience. An author in specific who was able to accomplish this, was Jeff Wise. He wrote a blog post in 2012 for Psychology today called “Deadly Mind Traps”, and eventually revised it in order to give it to the Readers Digest six months later. Jeff Wise was able to make his explanations clear, concise and engaging for any type of reader by breaking a seemingly big subject that appears confusing into five mini subjects; which include, The
Engendering the Brain written by Melissa Hines provides an insight of hormonal influences and implications on brain gender. The chapter begins with explaining the differences between gender difference and sex difference, and explains the psychological factors responsible for brain gender. It describes the role of hormones in the genetic development of individuals and their sexual differentiation. It illustrates a list of hormones, such as testosterone and DHT, which are responsible for sex-related characteristics. Furthermore, the chapter gives an account of how the gonadal hormone plays a crucial role in the development of human brain and human behavior.
In addition, the divisibility argument does not account for various other factors including diseases of the brain or psychological disorders such as multiple personality disorder. Modern science has shown that contrary to Descartes' divisibility argument, when a part of the brain is removed a part of the mind gets impacted. Although these effects are not evident when an arm or a leg is cut off, there is evidence which supports the idea that when a certain part of the brain, such as the frontal lobe is removed, the consequences result in severe impairment in their personality as well as their ability to reason. Furthermore Studies on the brain have shown that a disease in the brain can affect mind processes, in particular Alzheimer's disease
Even though there is no scientifically proven research about how this process works, most scientists agree that it is incredibly important. Highlighting the simplicity of binding circuity, the author asserts that it is able to create a new experience. Moreover, the circuity is able to create unique emotional experiences following one of the two pathways-- negative and positive. Armed with the knowledge about the brain mechanism, the author tries to figure out a phenomenon of Anna Nicole Smith. The main reason why this unknown waitress and single mom became an iconic figure is because her life symbolizes a variety of trivial narratives— starting with Rags-to-Riches, and finishing with a Troubled Life Narrative (page 34).
She takes a patient with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) as an example to show that the brain is the place that could control some our emotion. The deep brain stimulation (DBS) shows that the brain’s septal area and part
Since a person’s brain is so fragile, considering how important it is becomes even more daunting. After all, the brain, is the body’s ultimate controller, taking charge of even a person’s own desires and actions once it is compromised by injury, illness, or other ailment (Cahalan, 2012, pg.87). As much as the human race wants to believe they are in control, the truth is one event could drastically change
Conclusion: The mind is substantively different from the body and indeed matter in general. Because in this conception the mind is substantively distinct from the body it becomes plausible for us to doubt the intuitive connection between mind and body. Indeed there are many aspects of the external world that do not appear to have minds and yet appear none the less real in spite of this for example mountains, sticks or lamps, given this we can begin to rationalize that perhaps minds can exist without bodies, and we only lack the capacity to perceive them.
Imagine going to school and really succeeding; you understand everything, you’re getting good grades and all the praise you can dream of from your parents and teachers. But then you move up and things get harder, you don’t understand everything, your grades are dropping and you are scared that you will no longer get that praise. You have two options, you can either take on the challenge and get back to where you used to be, or you can sit down when you feel threated by the hard work. In “Brainology” by author Carol S. Dweck, we are shown research concerning those two options or “mindsets” and how we can change them.
They say that mental processes are the same thing as brain processes. This gives us a better explanatory role with causation regarding mental states. According to the identity theory, the “Mind” and the “Brain” refer to one object (the physical brain). (Anthony Oyowe, personal
If the brain is activated or stimulated or enriched, he is able to achieve much more than before the activation. A higher proportion of brain is unleashed; hence the potential of the whole brain can be accessed more
With every new leap in technology, comes the comparison to the brain. The brain is a wax block (philosopher Plato), the brain is a telephone switchboard (neuroscientist Charles Sherrington),
