RE: "Touching a Nerve: The Self as Brain" by philosopher Patricia Churchland
June 25, 2013 at 11:43 pm
(This post was last modified: June 25, 2013 at 11:44 pm by bennyboy.)
I don't think this is right.
The self is a symbolic entity-- an idea. Yes, the brain is the organ which processes and holds ideas. However, information has a kind of independence on the specific system in which it resides. That's why you could transcode an mp3 to hologram, to memory chips, or to arranged black-and-white seashells on the beach if you wanted to, and that information would be the same.
To say the self is the brain is to say that Casablanca is a bunch of pigmented film. It's not. The film is just the medium of convenience for carrying the ideas that make Casablanca a meaningful experience.
The self is a symbolic entity-- an idea. Yes, the brain is the organ which processes and holds ideas. However, information has a kind of independence on the specific system in which it resides. That's why you could transcode an mp3 to hologram, to memory chips, or to arranged black-and-white seashells on the beach if you wanted to, and that information would be the same.
To say the self is the brain is to say that Casablanca is a bunch of pigmented film. It's not. The film is just the medium of convenience for carrying the ideas that make Casablanca a meaningful experience.
