Consciousness and the Brain
Max Nugent
Through the following essay I will be exploring, discussing and analysing the different viewpoints towards the fundamental question of the ÂgapÊ between the physical facts of the brain and the phenomenon of consciousness. I will be looking at such different approaches as the materialist, the dualist, and the mysterian, and the way each of them argues their case for the explanation of such a ÂgapÊ. Furthermore, I will be looking at the opinions of each viewpoint as to whether such a gap can be bridged, and if so, by what means. The first approach I will be looking at is the materialist view. Materialists essentially hold that consciousness is no more than the collective result of the millions of neurons that make up the brain, firing in synchrony; that is, there is no soul or non-physical aspect of consciousness. It is nothing more than the product of such a vastly complicated organ as the brain. They argue that, although the Âriddle of consciousnessÊ has not been solved yet, scientists have made great advances in the neuro-scientific fields in the last few decades, and, as with the progress of science, the brain will eventually be worked out (and with it consciousness). After all, all previous great scientific discoveries took years upon years of work, so why should the brain, being the most complicated organ of all, be any different? Especially when neural experiments are so ethically controversial, leading to a slow research rate. Indeed, materialists claim that strong proof is already in existence, recently uncovered by the fields of science. For example, certain detectable neural pathways flash up strongly in different locations. These are known to be the neural patterns which make you
recognize certain places, that inescapable feeling of knowing and recognizing where you are. However, while standing in a room A, if electrodes are attached to your brain that cause the memory pathway for room B to flash up, you will feel, while knowing your presence in room B to be true, that you are in room B. Surely such ability to alter feeling, merely by altering brain patterns, indicates that these brain patterns do, in fact, cause feeling, or, for example, the ability, recently discovered, to effectively read your mind. Scientists can now discover what you are thinking about, merely by reading brain patterns. Admittedly, the technology is new and rudimentary, but surely even the fact of this happening shows that consciousness is merely a fact of the brain. Most materialists, being scientists feel that to believe otherwise is to be sentimental and unrealistic. When humanity did to understand thunder, it ascribed to it some mythical power, and when we did understand it, we scorned our former selves for such beliefs, just so, materialists claim, for consciousness. Until the brain has been fully figured out, many humans will continue to ascribe consciousness to some sort of otherworldly power. But, rest assured, it is only a matter of time before the riddle is solved, and it is proved that there is no gap between consciousness and the brain. Dualists are the main opponents of materialists and are firm believers in the standpoint that consciousness is not just a product of the brain: that there is something else entirely, to which consciousness can be ascribed. They claim that consciousness cannot just be part of the brain, and that there is a soul, or some such other entity, which is the reason for consciousness. Of course, consciousness is related to the brain
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