IUBio

New Intelligence

dag.stenberg at helsinki.nospam.fi dag.stenberg at helsinki.nospam.fi
Mon May 10 06:35:41 EST 1999


Cijadrachon <cijadra at zedat.fu-berlin.de> wrote:
> >> Which sectors of the brain are (not) counted as "mind"?
and I answered
> >"The whole" is my answer. 

> I stated for several areas which ones are (not) for me sectors of the
> mind  before,  and am not in the mood to repeat that one, as I figure
> who was interested paid attention to which ones I named as mind areas
> and which as as not mind areas and which ones as special sectors.

I have just finished a medical conference which I organized, and have a
severe backlog of binet.neuroscience stuff. Will prehaps read and
comment when I get to it.
  Generally spoken, though, I do think that all areas of the brain
contribute to the inner consciousness which we term "the mind", although
some are more important than others, just like in an orchestra the
conductor, the first violin and often lthorn have more influence than
the guy sometimes striking the triangle.

> >Besides, I may be a Sperryan).
> ?

Roger Sperry, Nobelist, proposed a "monist" theory of brain and mind,
saying that the mind is an emergent property of the function of the
multiple cells and networks of the brain. The monist theory is opposed
to dualist theory, which states that the mind is an epiphenomenon that
cannot be explained by (in philosophical erms: "reduced to") brain
function. Sir John Eccles was a famous dualist.
  In Sperry's viwe, a neural circuit (like the parts of the brain, or
the whole brain, or a social sommunity) will be more than the sum of the
elements: it will display properties that are not present in any
single element, but emerges from the togetherness of these elements.
Sperry added the important principle that the emergent cproperty will
then feed back onto the elements and control them. The state of single 
neurons is influenced by the consciousness and the workings of the mind,
the behavior of a community of individuals will influence the behavior
of a single individual in a way that would not occur if he was alone, etc.   
  Sperry's ideas actually extend to a religious extrapolation, faintly
(but rather faintly) resembling that of Spinoza (who talked about monads
of higher and higher hierarchy, having each more psychic complexity and
less materia, and the highest monad is God, who is no materia and all
psyche - forgive me if I simplify too much). Sperry rather extrapolated 
that as the mind is an emerging property of the function of the many 
elements of brain materia, there may be a higher emergent "mind" of the 
earth, the universe etc. One may think of God as one wishes. 
  I recall that I saw parallels between the "Gaia" hypothesis and
Sperry's writings when I used to read such literature. I hope Sperry
will not be offended.
  Consequently, Sperry was accused by the dualists to be an atheistic
materialist. Others called his thinking on mind and brain fuzzy. I agree
that his writing is not completely "Westie", but it inspired me when I
devoured it as a slightly younger man.
  The Nobel price was awarded to Sperry for other work. His main scientific
achievements were related to brain plasticity during development, and 
to the study of the different functional abilities of the left and right
hemispheres. Any textbook in neurophysiology will describe works by
Sperry, but very few will discuss his monist theory of mind as an
emergent property of the brain..

Dag Stenberg



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