Is the Mind Reducible to the Brain? The Debate in Krakow
Free will, abstract thought, and all the rest...?The debate in Krakow, Poland, sponsored by education foundation Fundacja En Arche is now available, with translation, at YouTube.
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Is “The brain is a computer!” One of Science’s Biggest Mistakes?
If so, the mistake throws a wrench into claims that conscious computers can ever be builtThe messy processes of the brain that enable the various layers of consciousness bear no relationship to what happens in computers.
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Who, Exactly, Is the Subject of Evolutionary Psychology?
Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor and science writer Denyse O’Leary offer some thoughts about why the discipline does not make senseThe whole Darwinian paradigm of natural selection falls apart when you’re dealing with the human mind. It’s a very different thing.
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Do Cats Have Souls? Some Reflections
At the close of his article, Richard Stevens asks, “As humans have an immortal mind, might some animals have such a mind beyond biology, too?"We can’t do more than wonder but the main thing to see here is that the special position of humans might enable it.
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Claims for a Multiverse Violate Basic Logic
Michael Egnor: To account for the fine-tuning of our universe, many thinkers claim, without evidence, that there are innumerable universes. But they won’t accept the existence of GodOccam’s Razor is never raised as a critique of the multiverse that I’m aware of. But multiverse claims are an obvious contradiction of the Razor’s minimalist approach.
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Panpsychism: The Boundary Problem We Face With Uncountable Minds
Egnor notes that if all living things — or everything in the universe — is conscious, as many believe, we face a huge problem with point of viewEgnor notes that intellect is the capacity to contemplate universals. In this respect, a human being is more different from an ape than an ape is from a virus.
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Are We Really “Unconscious” While Under Anesthesia?
Modern medics rely very much on anesthesia but how it works is not quite clearPart of the reason we don’t know exactly how anesthesia works is surely that we do not know what consciousness is (there are at least 325 theories out there).
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A Mystery of Consciousness — Thinking While in a Coma
Researchers are finding that many unresponsive bran-damaged people have covert consciousness. The question is, how to help them?Neurologist Brian Edlow hopes that brain–computer interface technology like Neuralink will help researchers communicate with covertly conscious people.
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Why Do Smart People Think Their Minds Are an Illusion?
A belief that makes no sense is a cornerstone of much neuroscience and philosophy of mindMichael Egnor comments that academics often hold such beliefs because they make them sound clever, not because they make sense.
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Philosopher: Memories Are Not “Stored” in the Brain
Memory is a function of time, not place, says Oxford's Victoria TrumbullNeurosurgeon Michael Egnor agrees; the image of storing and erasing memories is popular due to computer technology but not relevant to memory.
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What Do People Who Are Conscious But Lack a Cortex Demonstrate?
Consciousness does not necessarily reside in the cortex, as is commonly assumedNeuroplasticity is a very interesting and important area of research. But the careless and casual attribution of unexpected mental states to it is junk science.
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Why Egnor Finds Neuroscientists’ Lack of Curiosity “Unbelievable”
It seems as if they simply do not want to know about findings that challenge materialismUnfortunately, some of them spend a lot of time trying to discredit people who are willing to look at these questions.
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Do People With Split Brains Have Back Door Communications?
Some neuroscientists think that split brain communications can thus be explained that way. Michael Egnor disagreesThe simpler explanation, he says, is that percepts, perceptions travel through axons. Conceptions don’t travel through axons because they’re not material.
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The Astonishing Fact That Split Brain Patients Reveal
Perception (what we take in from the world around us) can be split but conception (ideas) are not split. And no one has two mindsA misguided article in Popular Mechanics gave neurosurgeon Michael Egnor a chance to shed light on a unique fact about people with split brains here.
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Change Your Mind, Restructure Your Brain
Is it possible to personally alter the physical structure of your brain? On today’s Mind Matters News, host Dr. Michael Egnor sits down with fellow neurosurgeon and author Dr. Lee Warren to discuss his book The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery. Dr. Warren shares how his medical training and Christian faith collided after the tragic loss of his son. The experience helped him realize that the mind is more than just brain activity. Dr. Warren unpacks the main thrust of his book, describing self-brain surgery as the intentional practice of choosing different thoughts to physically change the brain’s structure and improve overall health. Dr. Warren has observed the effects of such self-driven change in real-time brain scans, which deliver positive results like reducing the body’s stress response and promoting healing. Learn how you can alter your brain and bring about lasting positive change in your life.
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Near-Death Experiences: Do Brain Jolts Really Explain Them?
In the wake of evidence for changed lives, attempts to debunk NDEs as “just this or that” are starting to sound less certainMaterialist theories intended to explain away NDEs need only sound plausible and scientific; they need not enlighten. A new one will be along shortly anyway.
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Science, God, and Truth: Michael Shermer and Michael Egnor
On this episode of the Mind Matters News podcast, host and neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor welcomes Michael Shermer, historian of science and founder of Skeptic magazine, to discuss Shermer’s new book Truth: What It Is, How to Find It, and Why It Still Matters. The conversation quickly evolves into a deep philosophical debate between Egnor and Shermer over whether truths about morality and the universe are created by humans or discovered as objective features of reality.
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Toward a True — and Also Scientific — Picture of the Human Mind
Alexander Batthyány offers a personal anecdote about Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Sir John Eccles that might help point the wayBatthyány also expressed concern that a non-material/spiritual understanding of topics like terminal lucidity risks being taken over today by New Age nonsense.
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The Thin Spaces of Our Lives Where Strange Things Do Happen
In the discussion with Batthyány, Egnor suggested that people who inexplicably become more lucid near death are drawing closer to the light of God.
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Consciousness… a Computer or a Magnifying Glass?
At ID the Future, Egnor and Batthyány offer some further thoughts on the ongoing mystery: How does the human mind clear at the point of death?Neither shortage of oxygen nor the presence of relatives account for the sudden release from confusion or dementia.
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