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The senses and their primary interpreter, the tangible nervous system, in my opinion, are avenues for perceiving the world around us.  As Emily Dickinson argues, the brain is so vast that it can very easily contain, conceptualize, and provide a means of critically evaluating even the largest and seemingly boundless ideas and physical manifestations.  If this is in fact the case, why and how is this possible?  I understand that this presents the interesting quandary of whether or not anything actually exists when we are not able to perceive it or create it using our senses.  To me, this brings to mind the popular question of whether or not a tree in the forest, upon falling, makes a noise if no one is there to observe or detect it.  I believe that this is the issue which is being discussed and referred to by both Emily Dickinson and Descartes in the topics discussed in our most recent class.  If the brain is able to work with and comprehend these seemingly unfathomable things, then how does it accomplish this?

Personally, I am able to recognize that things are able to be perceived using the nervous system, but have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that the nervous system is a product of the senses.  If one has an impaired brain due to physical damage, like severe blunt trauma from a car crash or removal or decrease of its function from physical conditions such as excessive drug use or disease, then his or her ability to think and tap into this mental realm of thought or perception is also found to be impaired or altered.  I do think that there is a space for the intangible ideas and concepts which lack physical qualities, making them impossible to be completely detected using a strictly sense based logic within the tangible realm.  For example, these include concepts such as love, honor, or selfishness.  We may associate these concepts with a certain set of physical actions or perceivable features/qualities, but these collections of concrete examples are merely representations of ideas and concepts which remain ungrounded in physical reality.  The brain and the physical components of the nervous system seem to effectually be the sole gateway to this area of rational thought and reasoning that must exist outside of the realm of the physical world.  However, whether the brain is simply a vessel for reaching this space or the creator of this space and its contents remains a mystery to me.