Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The effect of symbolism
The effect of symbolism
Narrative techniques
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The effect of symbolism
The story in Brainstorms by Dr. Daniel Dennett is fiction. Dennett, the fictitious character identical to the real Dennett, is approached by Howard Hughes, nasa and government officials. They offer him to take part in a failed experiment involving a “Supersonic Tunneling Underground Device”. Dennett accepts to being the retriever for what is essentially an underground mobile atomic warhead, stuck deep underground. Because the bomb’s radiation is harmful to brain tissue, they place his brain (to which Dennett was quite apprehensive) into a chamber allowing it to retain full function, and replace it with a transmitter linked to Dennetts external brain. As another precaution, they copy its exact infrastructural function into a computer, so that …show more content…
To formulate and express the contents of this reduced awareness, man has invented and endlessly elaborated those symbol-systems and implicit philosophies which we call languages” (Huxley 6). So if Dennett occupies a physical manifestation it is because it is in his nature. The flash to Houston happened fast enough that it took Dennetts point of awareness a little while to even realize that he was physically there. This lag is not to be noted as an absolute difference between consciousness and circumstance but rather as an indirect bearing of that point of view on its personal location. The connection to the outer world is made by that which is a medium to reveal it. This is an example of what Dr. Dennett describes as the “body identity theory”, which is the natural tendency to locate one’s personal identity with their body. For wherever resides the consciousness also resides the brain, which only acts as the link to perceive the external world. Inside of Yorick, Dennett’s elation at the philosophical discovery fades into panic as the reality of his situation became more …show more content…
Also, Yorick was still inside of the brain chamber external from Dennetts body. He called his new body Fortinbras. Up until this point, Dennett was unaware of the extra precaution taken by the doctors of copying his brain’s functional capacity into a computer program, which they named Hubert. Though they had no way of proving that Hubert was identical to Yorick, their outputs had been shown to be completely synchronous, giving encouragement to Hubert’s legitimacy. At first, switching between Yorick and Hubert creates an imperceptible difference to Dennett. It is a seemingly seamless transition between the two. Fortinbras is given an unlabeled radio switch allowing the consciousness of Dennett to switch between Yorick and Hubert; which he only flips when in the presence of friends so that if the brain output of either was not functioning, those who have his best interests in mind would flip him back from the void. Dr. Dennett (the author) gives the idea that Dennett (the fabricated storyteller of this experience) is coming to the conclusion of the story, as though Dennett himself is telling the readers this story
Beilock, Sian. How the Body Knows Its Mind. New York, NY: Atria Books, 2015. Print. (152-158)
Daniel named his brain separately from the rest of his body. His brain in referred to as “Yorick” and his body is “Hamlet” and he himself is “Dennett”. Daniel was having a hard time grasping that if his brain, Yorick, was in the vat and his body, hamlet, was down the hall in the patient room, or wherever, then where was Dennett really at? He came up with some principles that could explain and possibly answer this question. The first principle was, “Where Hamlet goes there goes Dennett” in which he states that “it was clear enough, then, that my current body and I could part company, but not likely that I could be separated from my brain” (Dennett, 3). With this principle he then thought that maybe perhaps the truth was actually the second principle which was, “Where Yorick goes there goes Dennett”. The second principle states that in such an example if Dennett were to rob a bank in California and Yorick, his brain, was in Texas then where would the crime case take place and what kind of charge would come from it, “who” would go where for the punishment of the crime. If this principle were to be true then that leads to a third principle; “Dennett is wherever he thinks he is”. This third point of view states that “ at any given time a person has a point of view and the location of the point of view (which is determined internally by the content of the point of view) is also the location of the
In the essay “Thought” by Louis H. Sullivan, he states that people don’t always need words just to communicate. There are several ways that individuals are able to communicate without words, they can express themselves by gestures and facial features, like explaining themselves to others. Sullivan believes that both thinking and creative thinking are better without words and that the minds is always working; therefore, it does not have time to place words together. In order to think clearly they must use other means of pondering; although, the mind works quickly it will take a long time to write what they are thinking because the mind continues without stopping. When individuals are reading they are not think their own thought exactly but what
The first of the many ideas conveyed in Carr’s article is that the brain is malleable like plastic. To explain, the professor of Neuroscience, James Olds, says that “nerve cells routinely break old connections and form new ones” (Carr 4). This means that the human brain changes the way it functions according to the information manipulated by neurons. In the novel Feed, brain malleability is involved in the climax of the story. The feed works as a computer chip being directly inserted into a person’s brain. The climax of the story occurs when Titus and his group of friends get their brain chips hack. Before the attack, Violet, one of the main characters, never questions the society she lives in. However, after her brain chip is affected, her thoughts and brain functions rewired and from then, she starts to reflect on society. Given the climax of the story, the novel illustrates how even a brain chip cannot stop the natural malleability property of the human brain.
Identity is primarily described primarily as what makes a person who they are. While it is seen as an individual asset, one’s identity can be shaped and persuaded not only by life experiences, but by society as well. Bryan Stevenson speaks on several controversial issues and proclaims certain societal problems and the typical behaviors noticed in response to them. How one approaches the issues that are spoken about may expose their true identity. Stevenson argues that how one reacts to racial inequality within the criminal justice system may regulate their identity. In addition to that, how dealing with the nation’s history may force a growth on one’s identity, eventually bringing peace and acceptance to the nation. Lastly, how one views the
Science cannot explain everything but it strives to look for answers and relies on proof. Religion is based solely on faith and believes in many things that do not make sense and do not have proof to support its ideas. The belief that there is a substance beyond the element that takes up no space, but is still connected with the body is one of them. The belief that the mind or soul are not linked to the body and that they are both two separate substances. The body is one and the mind is another. This belief is not logical and does not make sense now that without the brain, which is a substance that makes up a body, a person could not function in the world. The mind and the brain are one, and these two elements cannot be separated now that the brain is just another part of the body.
In chapter three there is a somewhat disparate side of the ontological argument. It centers on the nature of God than the meaning of him. Particularly, this chapter centers on the early quality of God that is the fact that he needs to exist. Inanimate things, supplementary living things, and humans are ...
The mind-body problem can be a difficult issue to discuss due to the many opinions and issues that linger. The main issue behind the mind-body problem is the question regarding if us humans are only made up of matter, or a combination of both matter and mind. If we consist of both, how can we justify the interaction between the two? A significant philosophical issue that has been depicted by many, there are many prominent stances on the mind-body problem. I believe property dualism is a strong philosophical position on the mind-body issue, which can be defended through the knowledge argument against physicalism, also refuted through the problems of interaction.
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.
Descartes claims there is a real distinction between the mind and body. In the Second Meditation the Meditator establishes his existence, that he is a thinking thing and the distinction between the mind and body. Descartes claims he is a thinking thing and since he can think he exists, same too with the mind. The mind is a thing that thinks therefore the mind exists. Using the method of doubt discussed in the First Meditation, Descartes is able to doubt the existence of the body but not the mind. Descartes cannot doubt that he has a mind , but can doubt he has a body therefore Descartes is a thinking thing and not a body. He can exists as a thinking thing without a body because the body's existence can be doubted.
Ripley, Amanda. "Your Brain Under Fire. (Cover Story)." Time 181.3 (2013): 34-41. Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 Mar. 2014.
He has new ideas of God. He concludes he did not create the idea of God. A finite being is incapable of creating an idea of an infinite possibility. Therefore, God must have created the idea already in him when he was created. Concluding that God exists. He also touches upon the idea in which he resolves it cannot be a deceiver. For instance, deception only relies on imperfection, while that is not God, which makes God a non deceiver.
The mind body problem is the controversial idea of the connection between the mind and the body. Physicalism is a solution to the mind body problem, providing the idea that there is nothing above the world and accepts the mind to be a physical essence, nothing above the body. Physicalism provides different approaches in search of the mind and its constituents. By approaching the mind as a physical entity, behaviorist, a type of physicalism, view the mind as a category containing emotions, sensations and feelings. Another approach within physicalism is functionalism, the idea that the mind is a series of input and output of mental states. These and other approaches to physicalism, display the mind as something not out of the physical world and an entity that is not separated from the body. Physicalist believe the mind could be explained by physical sciences in the future. Some physicalist portray the mind through all the sciences while others reduced the
The identity theory of mind holds that states and processes of the mind are identical to states and processes of the brain thus particular psychological states are identical with particular type of physical state. Many objections have been lay out by philosophers who have evaluated this theory one objection that is particularly strong is the Martian and octopus criticism which state that if identity theory is true, than these species should not feel pain, but if they do feel pain than identity theory is not true.
Perry, Bruce, 1999. ECT Interview: Bruce Perry Discusses the Effects of Technology on the Brain.