We will do a quick review before we get into the content of this week s lecture.

Transcription

1 The link to the Descartes recommended reading is no longer working. You can find the text here: We will do a quick review before we get into the content of this week s lecture.

2 Philosophy is an attitude and a discipline. Philosophy is an attitude: we looked at the etymology of the word: the love of wisdom, that is an affectionate regard for a moral quality associated with virtuous behaviour. It s not acquiring facts and figures but having the understanding to act wisely. Philosophy is also a specific discipline defined by a unique set of problems, method of inquiry, and canonical texts. We discussed some of the internal divisions, but also highlighted how they are somewhat artificial. Broadly speaking, philosophy is the study of the fundamental nature of of reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. One turn of phrase. [Philosophy s] mandate is to render our views and our attitudes maximally coherent.

3 Brains, Mind, and Human Nature: People often talk as if they are interchangeable but they are not. One is not necessarily reducible to the other. Self, identity, and soul. De Facto: A latin expression that means "in fact, in reality, in actual existence, force, or possession, as a matter of fact" (literally "from fact"). At this point, the only thing you need to hold onto is the idea that there is a way of thinking about human nature, which is generally and widely accepted in philosophy, culture, and, probably, most people in their day-to-day lives (interesting empirical question). There have been attempts to articulate monistic accounts of human nature. Economic Man. Behaviouralism: Only observable (i.e. external) behavior can be objectively and scientifically measured, so internal events, such as thinking, should be explained through behavioral terms (or eliminated altogether).

4 How accurate is this model? How useful is it?

5 Lecture Title: The Politics of Your Brain: Anarchy Not Monarchy. The human mind is often characterized as a kind of monarchy, with reason ruling over unruly passions. Recent research points to a very different understanding of the brain s operations. We compare and contrast both understandings of the mind. We will start by returning to a familiar face to look at a highly influential account of human nature, which involves the four elements of the De Facto theory of Human Nature. Then, I m going to introduce you to an idea about your brain and your mind that I hope will stun/shock you. Then, to help you make sense of it, I m going to introduce you to some basic features about our brains. Then, we will look at an important experiment that helped to illuminate the mind blowing feature of brain.

6 Three key features of the human brain: modular, has two hemispheres, and is plastic. The Interpreter Module: what role does it plays in your consciousness? New metaphor, which will highlight the key difference between the de facto model and the new model. Consciousness isn t a monarch but much more like a Press Secretary. We learned last week he is, arguably, the most important and influential figure in Western philosophy. He was also normally thought to have been short, fat, ugly, dirty, and a bit of a deadbeat, who didn t care much about politics or his social status. We also learned that he decided no one was wiser than him because only he knew that he knew nothing. we looked at the story of how he came to this conclusion to help illustrate the notion that philosophy is the love of wisdom. I m also calling him Plato s Socrates to emphasize that he isn t necessarily a historical figure or his views might actually be Plato s. This week, we re going to look at metaphor he uses to make sense of human nature -- or the soul as he would

7 have put it. The text this idea comes from is a bit weird because it is really concerned about Socrates ideas about immortality, so I wouldn t rush out to read it at this time. The Chariot Metaphor of the Soul/Human Nature. A metaphor is a a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract. The human soul is like a chariot driven by a charioteer and pulled by two horses: one noble and one ignoble (nb: not evil) Reason, the charioteer, must drive and control the two competing impulses and strike a balance between them. NB: important both horses have a role to play, both have strengths and weaknesses, and the charioteer must strive to have them work together. Divided: This is straightforward. Monarchical: the charioteer rules over the horses.

8 Self-contained: They must work together as a selfcontained team to get from A to B. Responsible: the charioteer is ultimately in charge and responsible for the end results of their activity. He can t let one horse act out too much along the lines of its natural inclinations. There doesn t seem to be an explicit understanding of the mind having an unconscious dimension, but, in so far as the horse have minds of their own, we see the seeds of unconscious.

9 You don t need to take Socrates word for it. You might draw a similar conclusion through a little introspection. If you re like me, when you introspect Don t do this when you are trying to fall asleep! Inner monologue. Something hearing/aware of the inner monologue Other impulses, desires, ideas that pop into my head that are distinct from the inner voice. I m sure we ve all had the experience of our moral sentiments and our passions coming into conflict. We ve also experienced exercising ultimate control over our inner conflicts. Nevertheless, I feel self-contained and unified. A divided whole, as it were. I feel like I am in control. The best and most current brain science suggests there are tens of thousands and perhaps millions of unique and distinct awareness which altogether make up who you are The internet as an apt metaphor: it s power comes from the connections and networks. We will soon see that the same is true of the brain. Now imagine it was your job to tell the story of the internet. At best, even if all the information about the net could be sent to you, you could only access a fraction of the information available. You d probably want it sent to you in more manageable chunks. It turns out something like this is happening in our brain. Don t take my word for it!

10 One of the researchers who was instrumental in the development of this conception of mind. Professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Heads SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind. Leading researcher in cognitive neuroscience, the study of the neural basis of mind.... the brain has all kinds of local consciousness systems, a constellation of them, which are enabling consciousness. Although the feelings of consciousness appear to be unified to you, they are given form by these vastly separate systems. Whichever notion you happen to be conscious of at a particular moment is the one that comes bubbling up, the one that becomes dominant. It s a dog-eat-dog world going on in your brain with different systems competing to make it to the surface to win the prize of conscious recognition. Who s In Charge? (2011) An easy and accessible read: Tales From Both Sides of the Brain (2015)

11 But how is that possible: if you are like me, you have a sense that you are a single unified consciousness. In order to answer that question, I m going to introduce you to some brain basics. Let me be clear: This is not an anatomy course. I will cover just enough detail for our purposes. I will be covering a loft of facts. I will include them with the slides. Keep your ears pealed for the ideas that the brain is modular, has two hemispheres, and is modular Three pounds/1,300 grams. size: two fists held together 1500 cubic cms Primarily made up of neurons (grey matter) and glial cells Neurons send their connection to other neurons through white matter (glial cells and axons). It s the interaction of the neurons (through electrical impulses) that create your feelings, emotions, experience. 100 billion neurons. 30K on the head of a pin; end to end 100,000 miles, circle the globe four times.

12 A neuron are very specialized and can have up to to 10,000 connections, a thousand electrical impulses every second. In 1/10 of the time it takes to blink your eyes, a single neuron can simultaneously send a single to hundred of thousands of other neurons. Our brains have the same basic structure as other mammals. We are distinguished by a much more complex cerebral cortex. Complexity is the key. Absolute size does not matter; the complexity of connections is what matters. The brain is modular: different areas of the brain are responsible for different aspect of your body, mind, and experience. Two hemispheres controlling the other side of the body. They are similar in form and function, but important differences: for example language tends to be on the left, attention more on the right. Joined by corpus callosum NB: left vs right brainedness has been debunked. Both sides work together, and work best when they work together. We are also going to see that the left hemisphere is inventive and interpreting, while the right is truthful and literal. The right brain is much more literal and it is the left brain that is more creative and loose, which leads us to one of the most important discoveries of this research. plastic: You are a beautiful unique snowflake. No two brains are wired exactly the same and experience shapes the brain. Important: brain not fully functional until much later in life (20s). Can continue to improve and adapt well into old age -- right until death! The current view of the brain is that its large-scale plan is genetic, but specific connections at the local level are activity-dependent and a function of environmental and factors and experience.

13 When talking about these modular functional sections of the brain, we generally distinguish between four lobes. Frontal (top front): judgment, insight, impulse control, abstract, and planning, self-awareness. prospective memory (hold an intention). 40% of human brain s total volume. More than any other species. Parietal (top back): movement, sensation, sensory cortices, association (switch between tasks) Temporal (sides): regulation of emotion and sexuality, language is located in the dominant, hemisphere. left for right handed, 85% of lefties. Right for 15% of lefties. Auditory cortex (hearing) Occipital (Back): visual processing centre. Cerebellum (Back bottom): This part of the brain is responsible for coordinating your movements. The brain stem connects to the spinal cord: controls critical biological functions like breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, bladder and bowel movements. Matures from back to front.

14 Brain function is modular: specialized and localized, different areas of the brain are responsible for different functions. Two hemispheres. Almost alike, with important differences, two separate minds. Plastic: always evolving in the face of new experience. How is possible for me to feel like I am in charge, when the brain is made up of thousands and perhaps millions of independent awarenesses The short answer: there is a specific module, which has evolved to tell a story of coherence. In the second half of the class, we will look at some experiments that were crucial in revealing this new much more complex vision of the mind.

15 Socrates Chariot Metaphor: Divided, monarchical, selfcontained, responsible. Introduced you to your brain: modular, two hemispheres, plastic.

16 Bob Ross, The Joy of Painting. No mistakes only happy accidents. Science often progresses in the same way. We like to think science develops in a smooth progression, but it is much more like the Joy of Paintings: Happy Accidents. This is especially true of brain research. Accidents, injuries, and disease has driven much of our knowledge of brain structure and function. Phineas Gage: Railroad construction foreman. Our first maps of the function areas of the brain came from a Canadian, Wilder Penfield. Heritage moment: I smell burnt toast. To control the symptoms of extreme epilepsy, which seems to be the result of excessive electrical in the brain, parts of the brain were removed. Ideally, you only want to cut away the less important parts of the brain. He would stimulate the brain to figure out what parts of it controlled what parts of human behaviour. Epilepsy again plays a crucial role with with one line of research that revealed to us much about the brain. In order to treat extreme forms of epilepsy, as a measure of last resort, it was discovered that one could safely severe the corpus callosum, a brain structure that joins the two hemispheres. The received opinion at that time: no affect on humans, even though there seemed to be important effects in other mammals. Because little was expected, Gazzaniga was sent. Low man on totem pole. Right time, right place.

17 Because there are two hemispheres and one controls one side of the body and one controls the other, information can be sent to one part of the brain and not the other when the structures connecting them are severed. Normally, when the hemispheres can talk to each other this information is easily synthesized. Counterintuitively, severing the connection doesn t seem to do much, unless one comes up with a clever experiment to figure out what is really happening. One of the first tests was the tactile test. Object in right hand, which is controlled by the left side of the brain, it could be identified and described. Object in the left hand, controlled by the right, and it could not be identified or described. But the left hand/right brain, when asked, could match it through touch. On the slide, we see what happens when different information is communicated to different parts of brain.

18 URL: Good interview: I didn t see that. That s a kind of lie. His left brain didn t see it, his right did, but the left can t know what the right does. The left part of his brain has to guess -- like you or me. Brain function is modular: the part of the brain responsible for uttering words and idea exists only in the left side of the brain. If the information can t get there, what the right brain knows can t be converted into language. Mind is rooted in brain: The brain doesn t know what it doesn t know. An extreme example: people deny ownership of limbs connected to them. The Left Brain Interprets: The right brain is much more literal and it is the left brain that is more creative

19 and loose, which leads us to one of the most important discoveries of this research. There is one unique and localized part of our brain -- a module -- that takes input from other areas of the brain turns it into a story. The interpreter receives the results of the computations of other modules, but it does not receive the information that there are multitudes of modules or how they work. Warm drinks vs. cold drinks experiment.

20 In order to make story out of them, you don t need to know that I actually picked them randomly from different books on my desk. Something like this happens in the interpreter module of the brain. Some but not all the information our brains and bodies receive makes it way to this module and it has the task of telling a story to itself and the people around it that is coherent, whatever the actual source of it may be. The left-brain interpreter is driven to hypothesize about the structure of the world even in the face of evidence that no pattern exists. The flashing light experiment. We seek order even when there is none. This is an important point to reflect upon with respect to your own life.

21 Consciousness is independent, proactive, and monarchical. It always has the last word.

22 Jay Carney, President Obama s second press secretary. The US government is a massive beast of an institution. The interpreter module is somewhat like the daily ritual of the Press Secretary acting, as if, yes, of course, the White House knows exactly what is happening at all time everywhere and has an answer and rationale for everything that has happened in government. The metaphor is useful because it emphasizes the after-the-fact reasoning. The Press Secretary relies on information and decisions provided by others to weave a coherent story. It also emphasizes the social dimensions of the module: it helps interact with others. The metaphor breaks down because the Press Secretary doesn t really have the power to constrain the activities of government, whereas our consciousness does. The stories it weaves can constrain or direct the rest of the brain, but it is only one module among many that are able to do that. Dependent: it depends on and emerges from a host of different modules over which is has little or no control. Reactive: it responds to decision that are made elsewhere before it is even aware of them. Anarchical: it is not even a first among equals.

23 If the interpreter module is normally responding to decisions and processes after the fact, then what is normally making those choices. The answer seems to be that much of who we are is the result of unconscious processes. The vast majority of which may be inaccessible to you. So much so, in many cases people often as good as or better than knowing you. In our next class, we will take a closer look at the our new understanding of the unconscious.

24 If the interpreter module is normally responding to decisions and processes after the fact, then what is normally making those choices. The answer seems to be that much of who we are is the result of unconscious processes. The vast majority of which may be inaccessible to you. So much so, in many cases people often as good as or better than knowing you. In our next class, we will take a closer look at the our A ew understanding of the unconscious.