The Self-Embodying Mind

Title

The Self-Embodying Mind

Authors

James W. Brown

Files

Description

Brown, J. The self-embodying mind: process, brain dynamics, and the conscious present. 2002

This superbly written and finery argued philosophical essay has potentially revolutionary importance for understanding "human consciousness, " and its author has accordingly been celebrated by the likes of Oliver Sachs and Karl Pribram. Showing the relevance of neuropathology for understanding the unifying processes behind perception, memory, and language, Jason Brown offers an exciting new approach to the mind/brain problem, freely crossing the boundaries of neurophysiology, psychology, and philosophy of mind. Hard science and the study of the nature of the mind (including Buddhist perspectives) come together in new ways, and without advocating the reductionist "computational model" for the mind/brain relation which dominates cognitive science today.

Brown finds that every event in conscious life passes through highly determinate stages in a fraction of a second. These repeat both the stages of individual growth and of the evolution of the species: Not only does ontogeny recapitulate phylogeny, but the emergence of every moment of awareness recapitulates them both. This process begins deep in the brain stem with the mere awareness of duration, proceeds through concept-formation and image selection, and terminates with the apprehension of an object in the external world. The external object acts as a realistic constraint on consciousness. But in conditions such as brain damage, dream, meditation, as well as creativity, the preconscious stages enter into direct awareness, giving us explicit glimpses of the developmental and evolutionary process and presenting a startling reversal of common ideas about the development of the mind. Concept and image do not derive from perception and sensation, they come first. And the principle of consciousness, rather than being a latecomer on the evolutionary and developmental scene, is a potential throughout. - Goole Books

Publication Date

2002

Publisher

Barrytown

City

Barrytown, NY

Keywords

neuropsychiatry, neuropsychology, consciousness

The Self-Embodying Mind

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