Comments for All Manner of Thing

Comment on Notes on neuroscience by cburrell

cburrell — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 01:05:54 +0000

I could sign my name to your comment, godescalc; you’ve put it very well. Distrust of neuroscience itself is clearly not something I want to cultivate or even tolerate in myself, yet I am well aware of the danger, too often realized, of interpreting the findings of neuroscience in a way that has an especially pernicious effect on our self-understanding. It is an area of science in which it seems the distinction between the data and the interpretation of the data is unusually difficult to draw.

“Consciousness of the gaps” would seem to be a decent proxy for dualism; it is a view with obvious difficulties, but it’s not as though the alternatives are free of obvious difficulties! My suspicion is that our confusion is most likely tightly tied to our philosophy of nature and, in particular, our views on matter and causation. Without some fundamental revisions on those fronts, I don’t see how we can have a coherent account of the relationship between mind and brain. But it would be hard to think of many concepts more firmly entrenched. Alas!

Comment on Notes on neuroscience by godescalc

godescalc — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:00:08 +0000

Sticking pretty pictures into your research results is a tried-and-tested way of getting people engaged – words and equations can go in one ear and out the other unless actually understood, but a graphic is always processed on some level by the brain and so registers more.

The entire idea of neuroscience has been bothering me for some time – my thoughts tend to turn naturally to the massively reductionistic, so the idea that “the spirit is just fireworks in the nerve cells” seems to be both (a) obvious and (b) wrong (because qualia, philosophical arguments, religious experience, &c &c). Also, dissecting the physical component of human thought like a lab animal (a) is an obviously praiseworthy endeavour because all knowledge is good and (b) may not be good for a healthy view of human beings for trees-occluding-forest reasons you touch upon. This may be a sign I need to get into philosophy a bit more; my native distrust of neuroscience implies a “consciousness of the gaps” viewpoint which is asking to be knocked down.

Comment on Notes on neuroscience by cburrell

cburrell — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 04:18:17 +0000

Academic work is unfortunately vulnerable to fads — I’ve seen it in physics, and this fancy for brain images seems to be another example. Did you read the paper linked by the words “convincingly argued”? He remarks on a study in which the mere presence of a brain scan image in a phony paper caused readers to profess greater trust in its results. The imagery is amazing, but it ought not to dazzle us that much.

Comment on Notes on neuroscience by Erin Burrell

Erin Burrell — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 03:41:01 +0000

I heartily agree. And am apprehensive about the apparent research priority to demonstrate all psychological phenomena on a brain scan. It is very difficult to get funding for a study on therapy, for example, unless it includes imaging. This adds considerable expense and focuses research questions in ways that do not seem practical… which is a necessity in a field where well-constructed inquiries into even basic questions are lacking.

Comment on Messiaen and bird song by Janet

Janet — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 15:01:36 +0000

Oh, please do! The last thing I meant to do was give you something to worry about.

AMDG

Comment on Messiaen and bird song by cburrell

cburrell — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 15:00:34 +0000

Ah, I didn’t realize you had the ability to do that. Well then, I’ll stop worrying about it.

Comment on Messiaen and bird song by Janet

Janet — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 14:43:28 +0000

Don’t worry about it. I thought it was funny. And somebody might say something good on here someday. I could unsubscribe myself if I chose.

AMDG

Comment on Messiaen and bird song by cburrell

cburrell — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 14:41:24 +0000

I apologize, Janet. I got rid of it as fast as I could, but evidently not fast enough. If I knew how to unsubscribe you from this comment thread, I would do it.

Comment on Messiaen and bird song by Janet

Janet — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 14:34:32 +0000

As if it isn’t bad enough that my mailbox is full of MY spam, now I’m getting yours as well.

AMDG

Comment on Kierkegaardashian by cburrell

cburrell — Mon, 27 May 2013 20:18:16 +0000

Yes, please keep it to yourself.