Michael Egnor

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post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
February 25, 2021

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
__featured, Knowing vs. thinking (Wittgenstein), Ludwig Wittgenstein, Self as illusion, Thomas Meitzinger}

A Reader Asks: Is It True That There Is No Self?

_{The assertion that self is an illusion is not even wrong — it’s self-refuting, like saying “I don’t exist” or “Misery is green”} _{Michael Egnor

February 25, 2021

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

Sir, I am confused after reading the view of materialist philosophers regarding the sense of self. One of them, Thomas Meitzinger, a German philosopher and expert in conciousness, said that “There is no self” in his book. He said that self is an illusion produced by modules of brain. Is it so? Please help me understand this view. Thomas Meitzinger (pictured) is a prominent philosopher of mind who has a strong interest in artificial intelligence. I don’t know his work well, but what I do know of it, I find unintelligible. Perhaps it’s me, or perhaps he’s a sophist, or perhaps both. But this much is clear: My self cannot be an illusion, because having an illusion presupposes a self.…

Closeup of ill blond senior woman sitting at home and taking oxygen from respirator while nurse with protective mask on sitting next to her and holding her hand during corona virus.

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post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
February 14, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
__featured, American Crisis (book), Andrew Cuomo, COVID-19 fatalities, Elise Stefanik, Epidemiology, Howard Zucker, Melissa DeRosa, Nursing homes (New York), Sally Dresslin, Triage}

Explosive New Information About New York’s Mass COVID Deaths

_{In a video conference, perhaps accidentally, a health official blurted out the deadly policy and the reasoning behind it} _{Michael Egnor

February 14, 2021

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

In November, I wrote about the horrendous consequences of the official directive issued March 25, 2020 by senior New York State officials that required nursing homes to admit residents regardless of their COVID-19 status. In fact, the directive prohibited testing residents prior to admission: No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the NH solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19. NHs are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission. [underline in original]. The officials responsible are Governor Andrew Cuomo (pictured), Department of Health (DOH) Commissioner Howard Zucker, and Deputy Commissioner Sally Dreslin. Despite public outrage and strong media criticism, their order…

Psychology or invent conception. Brain function model.

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post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
February 9, 2021

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
__featured, Alan Sokal, Andrew Bulhak, Astonishing Hypothesis (book), Francis Crick, Language, Ludwig Wittgenstein, mereological fallacy, Post-modernism, Roger Scruton, Sokal hoax}

How Much of Neuroscience Is an Unwitting Hoax?

_{Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein saw that much materialist neuroscience was neither true, nor false, just nonsense} _{Michael Egnor

February 9, 2021

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

In 1996, NYU physics professor Alan Sokal published an article in a journal of postmodern cultural studies. The article, “Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity,” was a hoax. Sokal simply assembled more or less meaningless phrases about cultural theory and quantum physics in a grammatically correct but meaningless manuscript. He revealed the hoax a few weeks later in a magazine. The hoax ignited a storm of controversy and, in the view of many, revealed the essential sham at the core of postmodern philosophy. What Sokal (pictured) was doing, whether he knew it or not, was invoking philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s salient critique of philosophy and science, which is that much of our discourse is language games. By…

Artificial intelligence (AI), data mining, deep learning modern computer technologies. Futuristic Cyber Technology Innovation. Brain representing artificial intelligence with printed circuit board (PC

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post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
February 8, 2021

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
__featured, Aristotelian psychology, Behaviorism, Computer functionalism, eliminative materialism, Functionalism, Identity theory, Mind as computation, Noam Chomsky}

Is the Mind Really Just “What the Brain Does”?

_{Many theories claim so. None of them work. Functionalism, the current survivor, is the best of the lot but deeply flawed} _{Michael Egnor

February 8, 2021

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Over the past century there have been several paradigms or patterns of explanation by which philosophers and neuroscientists have tried to understand the mind. Behaviorism was the view that the input to and output from the nervous system was all that mattered. The ‘mind’ was deemed irrelevant to science. Behaviorism was eclipsed by reality—it was more or less demolished in the 1960’s by Noam Chomsky (1928–), who pointed out that language could not be understood in behaviorist terms. The study of the mind is indispensable to linguistics, neuroscience and philosophy. That this needed to be said is a scandal in itself. Identity theory — the view that mental states are identical to brain states — was the rage for several…

Vice grip tool squeezing a plank with the word free will

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post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
February 7, 2021

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
__featured, Aristotle, Benjamin Libet, brain, free will, Hylemorphic dualism, Meat robots, Sam Harris, Thomas Aquinas}

A Reader Asks: Does Neuroscience Disprove Free Will?

_{Materialists sometimes misrepresent the evidence for free will, especially Benjamin Libet’s work} _{Michael Egnor

February 7, 2021

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Here’s the question: I have a question regarding free will. Sam Harris in his interview with Dan Dennett said that “If we decide to do go to somewhere we experience it later but our brain decided it much earlier than our experience to this decision. If we scan the brain at that time we will tell you before you came to know” Now it raise a question because we decide through intellect. You said that free will is due to intellect so intellect is challenged here. It’s an excellent question. The answer in brief is that we most certainly do have free will. We can see this from three perspectives: scientific, philosophical, and logical. The scientific evidence The scientific evidence…

Propaganda and brainwashing of the influential mass media concept. Vintage TV set with hypnotic spiral on the screen.

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post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
February 3, 2021

Categorized
Education, Ethics, Philosophy

Tagged
__featured, Critical theory, Hannah Arendt, Intersectionality, Propaganda in education, Tom Knighton, Totalitarian education, totalitarianism, Women's sports}

Contradictory Beliefs Are a Feature, Not Bug, of Critical Theory

_{As a historian of totalitarianism has pointed out, “The aim of totalitarian education has never been to instill convictions but to destroy the capacity to form any.”} _{Michael Egnor

February 3, 2021

Education, Ethics, Philosophy}

“Intersectionality” is the claim by critical theorists that various kinds of oppression against victim groups intersect, in the sense that all oppression ultimately has the same source — you. In an essay at Substack titled “Intersectionality Has Hit the Stop Sign,” Tom Knighton argues, too optimistically in my view, that intersectionality is falling victim to its own contradictions. I believe he misunderstands the nature of the problem. Let me explain why. He cites the example of women’s rights vs. trans rights. A major victory for women’s rights is all-female sports, which allow women to compete without having to overcome the natural physical advantages of men. A major victory for trans rights is to allow men who identify as women to…

Bottom view of three professional doctors leaning over the patient and wearing medical masks while holding the anesthetic inhaler

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post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
February 2, 2021

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
__featured, Allan Leslie Combs, Anesthesia, Consciousness, Memory, Soul (concept)}

What Is Your Soul Doing When You’re Under Anesthesia?

_{It’s an intriguing and important question and you may be surprised by some of the answers} _{Michael Egnor

February 2, 2021

Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind}

First, no one should worry about unpleasant awareness during anesthesia. I’ve performed more than 7000 brain operations and I’ve never had a patient experience unpleasant awareness related to anesthesia. It does happen, but it’s rare, and I’ve never seen it. I’ve had general anesthesia myself four times, and as I tell my anesthesiology colleagues, I’m a big fan of anesthesia. Modern anesthesia is safe, highly effective, and indispensable. Don’t be afraid of it. But I do need to tell you that there are scientific facts about anesthesia and awareness that may surprise you. Second, when I use the word “soul,” rather than “mind” or “consciousness,” to describe mental states, I am not using the word in a spooky or New…

Hand turning off the bulb lamp.Turning off the light.

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post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
January 31, 2021

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
__featured, Coma, Consciousness, Jerry Fodor, John Locke, Mechanical philosophy, Persistent vegetative state (PVS), Unconsciousness}

Your Soul Has No “Off Switch”

_{A major modern misunderstanding of the human mind is to assume that it is like a machine with an “on” and an “off” switch} _{Michael Egnor

January 31, 2021

Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind}

I have written, in an earlier post, about the problem of “consciousness:” — that is, the problem inherent to the word itself and to the concept it conveys. I believe that “consciousness” is a mere narrative gloss on the mind — it denotes nothing beyond the mental powers of the soul. This is not just linguistic nitpicking. The concept of “consciousness” is much worse than useless. It leads us to misunderstand the mind in a profound way, as I will explain. The point may seem subtle but I believe that, if you think deeply enough about it, you will see that it is obviously true. First, I am not saying “consciousness” is an illusion. or possibly a delusion. This witless…

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post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
January 27, 2021

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
__featured, Adrian Owen, Anesthesia, Consciousness, Glasgow Coma Scale}

Does the Ability To Think Depend on Consciousness?

_{From a medical perspective, “consciousness” adds nothing to the description of mental states} _{Michael Egnor

January 27, 2021

Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind}

The title question might seem like a strange one but it is vitally important if we are to interpret neuroscience correctly and if we are to understand the mind–brain relationship. In my view, the capacity for thought does not depend on consciousness. The term “consciousness” is at best meaningless and at worst an impediment to understanding the mind. “Consciousness” is a very vague term and, ultimately, I don’t think it has any useful meaning at all, apart from other categories such as sensation, perception, imagination, reason etc. Aristotle had no distinct term for it. Nor do I think did any of the ancient or medieval philosophers. Consciousness is a modern term that seems to subsume all of the sensate powers…

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post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
January 25, 2021

Categorized
Ethics, Global Technology, Technocracy

Tagged
Antonio Gramsci, Charles Darwin, Critical theory, Leninism, Marxism, Saul Alinsky}

Why “Critical Theory” Might Shape Your Life Going Forward

_{Critical Theory has begun to rule the public square and we need to understand it} _{Michael Egnor

January 25, 2021

Ethics, Global Technology, Technocracy}

2020 was the year that Critical Theory came to dominate culture in America. It ruled academia for a half century but only in the past year has it begun to rule the American public square as well. Perhaps you’re not interested in Critical Theory but Critical Theory is interested in you. It behooves us to understand it better, because it will be a central theme in American culture for the foreseeable future. For readers who are not familiar with it, I provide here a synopsis. There is a connection to Darwinism at the heart of Critical Theory, as we will see. Critical theory is, at its root, cultural Marxism. It emerged from the failure of Leninism to capture the hearts…

A girl in a hat on top of a hill in silence and loneliness admires the calm natural landscape and balloons.

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post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
December 7, 2020

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
__featured, Closer to Truth (video series), design inference, Fifth Way, Franz Brentano, intentionality, Materialism, Matter, mind, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Teleology, Thomas Aquinas, William Dembski}

Why Consciousness Shows That Materialism Is False

_{The mind refutes materialism in a rather straightforward way} _{Michael Egnor

December 7, 2020

Philosophy of Mind}

My friend and colleague Bill Dembski, a leading advocate of intelligent design of the universe and life forms, has done a superb short interview with Robert Lawrence Kuhn on Closer to Truth. Bill takes a position that will surprise many fellow Christians—he doesn’t believe that consciousness represents an insurmountable challenge to materialism: Bill makes the point that much of the popular argument hinges on shifting meanings of “materialism” and “consciousness.” By contrast, he argues, the design inference in biology is a much more effective challenge to materialism. I agree that design in nature is an effective challenge to materialism. But I also believe that the mind refutes materialism in a rather straightforward way—and in much the same way that evidence…

Laboratory mice in the experiment test. Blue filter.

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post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
December 1, 2020

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
__featured, David Chalmers, Dualism, Dunning-Kruger effect, hard problem of consciousness, Idealism, Joseph Levine, Materialism, Mind-Brain Distinction, Roger Sperry, Steven Novella, Thomistic dualism}

Has Neuroscience “Proved” That the Mind Is Just the Brain?

_{This is hardly the first time that bizarre claims have been made for minimal findings. In neuroscience, materialism is the answer only if you don’t understand the questions.} _{Michael Egnor

December 1, 2020

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Last month, materialist neurologist Steven Novella made a rather astonishing claim in a post at his Neurologica blog: A recent open-access study of learning and decision-making in mice shows that the human mind is merely what the human brain does. That’s a lot for mice to prove. In the study, the mice were trained to choose holes from which food is provided. Their brain activity was measured as they learned and decided which holes were best. The research looks specifically at quick and intuitive decision-making vs. decision-making that is slower and involves analysis of the situation. The investigators found that analysis-based decisions in the mice involve brain activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, which is a region of the brain…

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post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
November 16, 2020

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Science

Tagged
__featured, Brain states, Determinism, free will, Freedom, Jerry Coyne, John Bell, Predictability, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Physics}

A Materialist Gives Up on Determinism

_{Evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne undercuts his own argument against free will by admitting that quantum phenomena are real} _{Michael Egnor

November 16, 2020

Philosophy of Mind, Science}

Evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne has denied free will for years. But most recently, he has said something that puts the whole matter in doubt. A bit of background: Free will simply cannot be real if determinism is true, that is, if everything in nature falls like dominoes after the first one is pushed: If nature is truly like that, our acts, like those of the dominoes, are wholly determined by natural history and physical laws that we do not control. Nearly all arguments against free will depend critically on determinism. But there is a central problem with determinism: It is clear from physics that determinism in nature is not true. In 1964, theoretical physicist John Bell (1928–1990) proposed relatively simple…

Asian doctor wearing face shield and PPE suit to check elder woman patient protect safety infection Covid-19 Coronavirus outbreak at quarantine nursing hospital ward.

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post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
November 13, 2020

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health

Tagged
__featured, Adrew Cuomo, COVID-19, COVID-19 fatalities, Howard Zucker, New York Department of Health, New York State, Nursing homes, Sally Dreslin}

Why Did New York Have COVID Policy That Killed Elderly Patients?

_{For all practical purposes, the government directive was essentially an order to spread COVID to people in nursing homes} _{Michael Egnor

November 13, 2020

Ethics, Medicine and Health}

This is a difficult post to write, and a difficult post to read. I’ve thought about it for months, and what I’m going to say must be said. I see no way around the conclusions I’ll draw. So here goes. On March 25, 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York State, the New York State Department of Health, under the signatures of Governor Andrew Cuomo, DOH Commissioner Howard Zucker, and Executive Deputy Commissioner Sally Dreslin, issued a directive to New York State nursing homes requiring nursing homes to accept patients for re-admission or admission regardless of their COVID-19 status. The salient paragraph is: No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the NH solely based…

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post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
October 29, 2020

Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
__featured, epilepsy, free will, Michael Egnor, Mystery of the Mind (book), seizures, Wilder Penfield}

Why, as a Neurosurgeon, I Believe in Free Will

_{The spiritual aspect of the human soul, sadly, leaves its signature in epilepsy} _{Michael Egnor

October 29, 2020

Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

In his classic book, Mystery of the Mind, (1975) epilepsy surgery pioneer Dr. Wilder Penfield, asked a significant question: “Why are there no intellectual seizures?” Epileptic seizures can be experienced in a variety of ways—convulsions of the whole body, slight twitching of a muscle, compulsive memories, emotions, perceptions of smells or flashes of light, complex motor behaviors such as chewing or laughing or even walking, or subtle moments of inattention. But seizures never have intellectual content. There are no intellectual seizures, which is odd, given that large regions of the brain are presumed by neuroscientists to serve intellectual thought. It is all the more remarkable when we consider that seizures commonly originate in these “intellectual” areas of the brain. Yet…

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post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
October 26, 2020

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
__featured, appetites, Benjamin Libet, free will, functional MRI (fMRI), Patrick Haggard, Rational appetite, Sensitive appetite, Wilder Penfield}

Neuroscience Refutes Free Will? Addressing an Objection

_{Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is not as good as Libet’s methods for assessing real-time effects} _{Michael Egnor

October 26, 2020

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

In reply to a post in which I pointed out that neuroscience strongly supports the reality of free will, commenter AaronS1978 makes a point at Uncommon Descent: First Michael Egnor is wrong about there being no brain wave activity with free won’t Patrick Haggard in 2014 discovered accidotal brain waves to free won’t I feel he kind of makes declarations, I understand his position philosophically and I do agree with a lot of it, but saying there is no activity before free won’t and saying it’s immaterial is incorrect Furthermore why wouldn’t there be brain activity when exercising your will? Wouldn’t that just mean that your soul was using your brain? Isn’t consciousness and conscious experience (hard problem of the…

Hands of a man tearing a piece of paper with inscription free will

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post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
October 17, 2020

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
__featured, Appetite, Benjamin Libet, epilepsy, free will, Free won't, Jerry Coyne, Mystery of the Mind (book), Rational appetite, reason, Sabine Hossenfelder, Sensitive appetite, Thomas Aquinas, Wilder Penfield}

Neuroscience Can Help Us Understand Why Free Will Is Real

_{Physicist Sabine Hossenfelder and biologist Jerry Coyne, who deny free will, don’t seem to understand the neuroscience} _{Michael Egnor

October 17, 2020

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne seems obsessed with denying free will. In a recent post on his blog, Why Evolution Is True, he supported the claim of theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder that we do not have free will: If you’ve read this site, you’ll know that my own views are pretty much the same as hers, at least about free will. We don’t have it, and the fundamental indeterminacy of quantum mechanics doesn’t give it to us either. Hossenfelder doesn’t pull any punches: “This means in a nutshell that the whole story of the universe in every single detail was determined already at the big bang. We are just watching it play out.”… QED! Jerry Coyne, “Sabine Hossenfelder says we don’t…

Vintage tone beautiful pedestrian stone bridge and knee-wobbling vantage point over the second tier 69-foot drop of Multnomah Falls lower in winter time. Natural and seasonal waterfall background

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Author
Michael Egnor

Date
September 15, 2020

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Religion

Tagged
__featured, G. K. Chesterton, John Horgan, Law of non-contradiction, Rene Descartes, Skepticism, Solipsism}

How Do You Know You Are Not the Only Human Who Ever Existed?

_{Can evidence or logic help you decide? You might be surprised…} _{Michael Egnor

September 15, 2020

Philosophy of Mind, Religion}

Solipsism is the belief that you are the only human being who has ever existed; all others are the inventions of your imagination. G.K. Chesterton famously received a letter from a reader who commented (I paraphrase), ‘Solipsism is a compelling metaphysical position. I’m surprised more people don’t believe it.” At Scientific American, columnist John Horgan describes solipsism as a central dilemma of human life. In a recent essay, “How do I know I’m not the only conscious being in the universe?”, he writes, It is a central dilemma of human life—more urgent, arguably, than the inevitability of suffering and death. I have been brooding and ranting to my students about it for years. It surely troubles us more than ever…

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post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
September 3, 2020

Categorized
Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
__featured, Derek Parfit, Identity, Personal identity, Roger Sperry, split-brain surgery}

Does Split-brain Surgery Show That We Have No Real Identity?

_{A prominent philosopher built his career arguing against the existence of personal identity} _{Michael Egnor

September 3, 2020

Philosophy of Mind}

One of the most bizarre consequences of the modernist materialist conception of human beings is the notion that personal identity is not real or not continuous. This view is, of course, contrary in every way to the lived experience of each of us. Like everyone else, I am the same person I was as a child, and the same person I will be a moment before my death. I am me, and I am no other. Of course, at different times of my life I have had different memories, experiences, and perceptions, but it is the same I (the only I) that has them. This is so fundamental to reality that it seems beyond question. It is not even clear…

Creative background, the human brain on a blue background, the hemisphere is responsible for logic, and responsible for creativity. different hemispheres of the brain, 3D illustration, 3D render

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post

Author
Michael Egnor

Date
August 11, 2020

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
___longform, __featured, Behaviorism, brain, Dualism, eliminative materialism, Functionalism, Identity theory, mind, Roger Scruton, Steven Novella}

Why the Mind Can’t Just Be the Brain

_{Thinking it through carefully, the idea doesn't even make sense} _{Michael Egnor

August 11, 2020

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Philosopher Roger Scruton (1944–2020) defined neuroscience thus (I paraphrase): Neuroscience is a huge collection of answers with no memory of the questions. Over the past century, neuroscientists have amassed vast libraries of data. But their interpretation of their data on the mind-brain question shows no meaningful understanding of the genuine questions their research is tasked to answer. These questions are ancient: What is the relationship between the soul (or mind) and the body (or brain)? How is it that matter can think? How is it that third-person stuff gives rise to first-person experience? Answers to such questions from the neuroscience community show little evidence of the profound and subtle nature of the questions. Thus, neuroscientists provide answers to questions they…