The ‘Sensation-Brain Process Identity Theory’ posed by J.J.C. Smart is the view that a sensation is a just a brain process. In the strict sense of identity a sensation and a brain processes are two names for one thing. Similarly, the one thing people refer to when they talk about ‘the morning star’ or ‘the evening star’ is Venus. There exists only one physical component to this world from which we derive other statements like ‘the morning star is the last star you can see in the morning.’ ‘The morning star’ happens to be Venus. A sensation happens to be a process. A brain process more obviously is also a process. When we talk about sensations or a brain process we are talking about the same process. The one particular process being referred to ‘is’ in the strict sense a single thing like Venus. When we talk about a sensation or a brain-process we do so to designate one and the same component of living humans.
Assuming his existence, the name Superman picks out a particular individual. We can refer to this individual thing by the name Superman. Superman is just a name which picks out a particular guy who also happens to be referred to by another name Clark Kent. Superman and Clark Kent are strictly identical. The two terms refer to one thing i.e. a superhero alien who disguises himself as a nerdy reporter. Similarly brain-processes and sensations refer to the same thing. A sensation state is a state of a physical component. A Brain state is a state of a physical component. The very same physical component ‘is’ being referred to by reporting either sensation states or brain processes just like referring to the same alien by talking about ‘Superman’ or ‘Clark Kent’.
Smart does not think that Sensations are caused by brain processes...
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... it means to experience a lower than average amount of molecular kinetic energy. In the second case Smart would say the Russian peasant is referring to the amount of molecular kinetic energy in the Russian tundra. Smart uses the case of lightning as an example of this. People can talk perfectly well about lightning, but know nothing about electrical discharges. Smart on page 147 puts it as “Note that there are not two things: a flash of lightning and an electrical discharge. There is one thing, a flash of lightning, which is described scientifically as an electrical discharge.” In the illiterate peasant case, Smart thinks the peasant is talking about something which ‘happens to be’ identical in the strict sense to a brain process. The peasant is referring to a brain process in the same way as when people refer to electrical discharges when talking about lightning.
The brain receives input and somehow transforms it into output. How does it do it? In part because of the extraordinary technological feats achieved using digital processing computers, the brain has often been interpreted as a symbol manipulator and its cognitive activities as the transformation of symbols according to rules. By contrast, recent successes with parallel distributed processing computers have encouraged a connectionist theory of mind which regards the brain as a pattern recognizer and its cognitive activities as the transformation of neuronal activation patterns; however, these pattern transformations are not rule-governed processes, but straightforwardly causal processes in which networked units (neurons) excite and inhibit each other's activation level.
This paper aims to endorse physicalism over dualism by means of Smart’s concept of identity theory. Smart’s article Sensations and the Brain provides a strong argument for identity theory and accounts for many of it primary objections. Here I plan to first discuss the main arguments for physicalism over dualism, then more specific arguments for identity theory, and finish with further criticisms of identity theory.
He suggests that when analyzing colors and their role in brain processes, we are misinterpreting the way it should be understood. When we speak about these sensations that are synonymous with the brain processes, it should be said as “There is something going on which is like what is going on when ____,” (149). In the case of seeing red as mentioned before, the statement would appear as “There is something going on which is like what is going on when I have my eyes open, am awake, and there is an emission of red cast from an object, that is, when I really see red." Ultimately, I do not believe this response is an adequate answer to the objection. It appears that Smart is merely altering the linguistic nature of the question rather than providing a solution to the problem. This “something” neutralizes the difference between a brain process and a sensation without giving a sound reason as to why or how they would be considered identical rather than
In the video “This Time with Feeling,” Antonio Damasio is a professor in the field of neuroscience at the University of Southern California and an author of books associated with the relationship between the brain and consciousness. In terms of his studies, Antonio Damasio, by contrast with some biologists and other experts, demonstrated that the emotion and feeling play a main role in various kinds of life-regulating processes in the society. Furthermore, the emotion and the feeling will be reflected or transmit to the brain as the stimuli, and then they will create a variety of body states.
In Conclusion the identity theory state that states and processes of the mind are identical to states and processes of the brain can not be true because in the example of a Martian and Octopus we see that it is possible for other species to experience pain even though the make up of their brains might be different than ours we know this because when we examining their behavior and how this react to certain things that causes pain they manner in which they reacted to those things is similar to the manner in which human would react
Current research shows that mental events cause physical events, and scientists believe examining single nerves is the key to understanding how the brain works as a complete unit. Understanding the brain at the nerve cell level will allow scientists to understand how human consciousness works (Blakeslee, 1992). Furthermore, the brain's thalamus is identified as the possible sensory connector because it fires 40 impulses per second that sweep through the entire brain (Blakeslee, 1995a). These findings are a serious implication to Dualism because it states the mind is not physical. If the mind is not physical, it cannot affect the physical body, so the Dualist theory of two-sided interactions between the body and mind are false. The aforementioned argument is supported by many other scientific facts and objections against Dualism.
Renner, T., Feldman, R., Majors, M., Morrissey, J., & Mae, L. (2011). States of Consciousness. Psychsmart (pp. 99-107). New York: McGraw-Hill.
...logical, and scientific manner. Even to this day many people still raise the question about the unity of consciousness. As Elizabeth Schechter stated in her work “This work is about individuating mental tokens from a theoretical or scientific perspective, and about the insights that the split brain studies yield into such individualization. It focuses on two questions about mental tokens in split brain subjects in particular: how many minds they have, and how many streams of consciousness they have.”
Due to the abstract nature of psi, as it impinges upon the organism outside of the normal modes of sensory encroaching on sensory organs, information, within the mind of the person manifests as various symbolic, or even literal, associations that are tacit in nature and non semantic. Semantic information is qualitative in nature which connects the dots in regards to meaning. Extrasensory information manife...
This paper is on epilepsy and seizures. The human brain is the source of all human epilepsy. (Steven C. Schachter, Patricia O. Shafer, Joseph I. Sirven, 2013) What is epilepsy? Epilepsy is sometimes referred to a seizure disorder, though not all seizures are related to epilepsy. According to the website Stony Brook Medicine, the reason a seizure occurs is because of an unexpected surge of electrical activity in the brain. (Stony Brook Medicine, 2014) Due to the overloading of electrical activity, it causes short-lived disturbance in the messaging system between the brain cells. The word epilepsy approaches from a Greek word 'epi' signifying 'upon or above' and the Greek word 'Laptos' meaning 'seizure'. The roots we have the Greek word epilepsia and epilepsies. (Seth Statler) Epilepsy also means that a person has had repeated seizures. A single seizure does not mean they have epilepsy. Therefore epilepsy can be defined as more than one seizure. In America, more than three million Americans are affected with epilepsy and seizures, with almost 200,000 new cases diagnosed annually. (Stony Brook Medicine, 2014) Epilepsy is not a disease but a disorder of the central nervous system specifically the brain.
The theoretical model associated with this proposal is the Ayres Sensory Integration theory (ASI). Jean Ayres defined sensory integration as “The neurological process that organizes sensations from one’s body and from the environment and makes it possible to use the body effectively in the environment” (Ayres,1989, p. 22). The theory states that adequate processing and integration of sensory information is an important foundation for adaptive behavior (Kramer & Hinojosa, p. 99). Moreover, this theory is associated with this capstone because it emphasizes the need for children to explore and interact with various types of stimuli. It is necessary for preschoolers to interact and engage with a MSE to enhance their sensory systems. Jean Ayres
Newman, J. B., Banks, W. P., & Baars, B. J. (2003). Essential Sources in the Scientific Study of Consciousness. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
The term ‘consciousness’ as it can be defined is the state of one being conscious or aware of one’s own being, existence, thoughts, feelings as well of his surroundings (Consciousness, 2014). It is often found that human beings tend to ignore the fact that consciousness is apparent in their existence. It has been assumed since early times that it is the brain that leads to production of consciousness in an individual. The brain in this case has largely been associated with the mind. While several studies have been conducted trying to determine the relation of consciousness with the brain, direct evidences were hard to find that could imply that brain and consciousness are identical. Rather it could be obtained that the operation of human consciousness can be beyond the brain or the body. Hence the two cannot be said to be identical (Dossey, 2009).
Sensation refers to the process of sensing what is around us in our environment by using our five senses, which are touching, smell, taste, sound and sight. Sensation occurs when one or more of the various sense organs received a stimulus. By receiving the stimulus, it will cause a mental or physical response. It starts in the sensory receptor, which are specialized cells that convert the stimulus to an electric impulse which makes it ready for the brain to use this information and this is the passive process. After this process, the perception comes into play of the active process. Perception is the process that selects the information, organize it and interpret that information.
If we explain sensory coding within an example; a bitter sweet taste sensation won't take place in our tonge, it takes place in our brains, but the tasting experience in brain impulses is also caused by electrical impulses in taste receptors on the tongue. Thus, our receptors play an important part when we associate external factors with our natural life. Our conscious perceptions of numerous aspects is caused by special neural event that happened in the receptors. Receptors and the connection passages code the intensity and quality of the stimuli.