Cognitive science — the study of the mind and other intelligent systems — has a lot to learn about consciousness. But the consensus so far concludes that: The mind is what the brain does. This claim represents the materialist perspective in science, where all mental-emotional phenomena can be reducible to matter. We won’t go into the debate about this perspective, but it is important to understand it before we move forward, because to study the concept of selfhood, we must study the brain, which is the seat of the conscious self. What this materialist claim means is that the mental experiences we all take for granted, such as thinking and feeling, can be explained as a function of the brain. Or they can simply be described as “what the brain does.” So according to this perspective, we can only experience what our brains allow for us to experience, since the brain implements consciousness. Following this logic, the concept of selfhood, where you are a single, unified self, is also something that the brain does — or rather, something that the brain creates..... Is who you are then just a user-illusion of your brain? Most scientists who adhere to the dogmatism of materialism would agree with UC San Diego Professor P. S. Churchland, who writes in her book Brain Wise: Studies in Neurophilosophy, that selfhood is then just a user illusion of the brain. From their perspective, since aspects of self are created by the brain, then the concept of selfhood is not something that can be in tact without the brain because it is constantly generated by the brain. But again, the materialist paradigm has yet to explain or understand what consciousness really is. This stands alone even if we set aside new insights about the energetic nature of the physical world gleaned from quantum science and epigenetics, which challenge materialism. And, by the way, not all neuroscientists, or even neurosurgeons are materialists — some do believe that the mind does exist. However, this is not to say that viewing the construct of self as a set of mental representations is inaccurate altogether, just because the materialist paradigm may be inaccurate. We do have much to gain from taking the materialist approach to studying the brain. In science, we sometimes need to extract parts of the greater whole to better understand how that whole operates (assuming that consciousness is a “whole”). Our consciousness may not be the single, unified, continuous stream of stimuli and events that we perceive it to be. But our brains make it appear as if our consciousness is a single, unified, continuous stream of stimuli and events. Our brains give us the experience of having an independent and single identity, even though we are clearly multidimensional. And this is for good reason. The concept of selfhood is like a movie We know that movies do not show actors moving, but rather still shots of actors in various stages of movement. When you watch a movie, your brain interprets movement that is not really there (without a normally functioning brain to perceive it), yet you don’t say the movie is an illusion. You simply accept that still shots have such an effect on human perception, which makes movies look realistic. Subconscious dimensions of selfhood Furthermore, it would be extremely difficult to make sense of our unconscious and subconscious processes, which are prevalent aspects of selfhood. Unconscious processes are typically things that we cannot perceive, such as the commands that keep our heart beating at all times. Subconscious processes are typically things that we do not normally perceive, but can perceive if we delve deep enough, such as a cultural belief that when you take your mother’s freshly baked cookies without asking, you should feel guilty. As you will gather from other articles, I refer to both processes under the category of subconscious. Our brains allow us to function with a concept of self regardless of what our subconscious is doing in the background. If we were conscious of everything our brain was processing at all times, life would be too chaotic. Fortunately, the brain keeps many processes subconscious, so we can carry out normal lives. Unfortunately, these very subconscious processes can also prevent us from carrying out normal or healthy lives, if they are maladaptive. So sometimes we need to follow the brain’s lead and integrate our subconscious dimensions into our conscious self as much as we can. If we do not, then our multidimensionality may get the worst of us, where certain aspects of who we are (e.g. the ego) act on our behalf, outside of our control.
Posted on: Sat, 31 Aug 2013 20:52:17 +0000
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