The Human Condition
As Seen by a Materialist Neurobiologist
Paul Grobstein
Building the Scientific Mind
Vancouver, May 2007
Overview: The Bipartite Brain as a Guide to the Scientific Mind
The Brain is Wider than the Sky
For put them side by side
The one the other will contain
With ease and You beside
Emily Dickinson
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- All human feelings/thoughts/understandings/intentions about ourselves/our body/what's beyond are body are mediated/constructed by the nervous system .... are "stories".
- We have no direct access to "Truth" or "Reality" with regard to either.
- Feelings/thoughts/understandings/intentions are different in different people, necessarily and desirably so.
- The nervous system can and does act on and learn from the world without "thinking", ie without "feelings/thoughts/understandings/stories". This is a valuable feature of our interactions with the world and each other; it supports both exploration and creativity.
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We can also "think", and this gives as additional ways to interact with our bodies, the world, and each other, including ways to "transcend human nature" ... by telling and revising stories.
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Bipartite = left/right = front/back (Kalina Christoff) = European/non-European (Benjamin Olshin) = story teller (neocortex)/rest of brain
Getting It Less Wrong, the Brain's Way: Science, Pragmatism, and Multiplism
Revisiting Science in Culture: Science as Story Telling and Story Revising
Writing Descartes: I am and I can Think, Therefore ...
| Overview | Brain: Exploring/Creating | Brain: Story Telling | Brain: Story Sharing | Towards a New Human Culture | On-line Forum |
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Wednesday, 02-May-2018 10:52:46 CDT