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Mapping the mind to the body
CULTURELAB
Mindful of the body Could consciousness be evolution’s gift to the body? John Bickle is almost won over by this idea Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the conscious brain by Antonio Damasio, Pantheon, $28.95
WHEN combining neuroscience and philosophy, one popular strategy is to present many surprising neuroscientific results and then breathlessly assemble them into a grand speculative claim about “what it all means”. A second strategy is to roll up one’s sleeves and dig into a specific area of neuroscience, presenting not only the eye-opening results but also the methods and rationales behind them to argue precise philosophical points. Self Comes to Mind is an example of the first strategy – but neuroscientist Antonio Damasio is in good company. Since the 19th century many great scientists have attempted to sketch a philosophical vision, hard won living conditions, or homeostasis. over years of scientific toil. But Homeostasis, he argues, is the despite the broad appeal of this most valuable thing a biological intellectual-cum-popular genre, organism can possess. Therefore and the chatter it can raise on the evolution will surely select for intelligentsia’s cocktail party anything that best maintains it – circuit, it is reasonable to ask what even full-blown human lasting impact even the best of consciousness. This hypothesis is these tomes have on real science worthy of serious investigation. or philosophy. I suspect not much. That’s not to say that Damasio’s “The brain’s neural maps give rise to the mind – book isn’t an interesting read. but ultimately they are The book sets out to explore how about the body” the brain constructs a mind and how the mind in turn becomes conscious. It is a daunting Damasio also offers an journey, and Damasio introduces intriguing link between the some novel ideas along the way. evolution of consciousness and For instance, he argues that at the the brain’s propensity to create root of the mind is each individual “maps” – networks of neurons cell’s “desire” to maintain its ideal that represent body states. Such 50 | NewScientist | 27 November 2010
Tim Hawley/getty
Reviewed by John Bickle
A lone brain is not enough to create consciousness – it needs the body
maps allow the brain to monitor the body and make sure it doesn’t stray too far from the homeostatic ideal. Neural maps, he argues, give rise to the mind – but ultimately they are about the body. I was grateful to see Damasio apply real neuroscience to this often hand-waving notion of “embodied cognition”. Readers familiar with Damasio’s previous writings will find a nice continuation in his latest views about the crucial role emotions play in consciousness. But now he gives memory a new significance: the brain’s evolved capacity to store vast records of
motor skills, facts and events, combined with its ability to process memory records while continuing to perceive the present moment, result in the fully human “autobiographical” self – the key ingredient, he argues, that allows for the mysterious leap from mind to conscious awareness. In the end, however, the book’s adherence to strategy number one is its undoing. Rather than presenting sustained arguments, chapters are broken into often disconnected sections that read like extended aphorisms. When the philosophical going gets tough (that is, interesting), Damasio often switches topics. With a few exceptions, the science is presented similarly. We learn remarkable facts about the brain but next to nothing about how or why these facts were discovered. Of course, when fleshing out a “synoptic vision”, it is not practically possible to explain all of the scientific processes that formed the basis of one’s speculative reach. Still, there’s something deeply worrisome about books like this. Expounding on scientific results and using them to engage in philosophical speculations without explaining or criticising the processes that generate the data can create a dangerous intellectual conformity paraded as “scientific”. Damasio knows his science, but he and others would do well to remember that many readers don’t. A little explanation of the scientific process lurking behind the philosophy would go a long way. n John Bickle is a professor of philosophy and neuroscience at Mississippi State University
Mindful of the body Could consciousness be evolution’s gift to the body? John Bickle is almost won over by this idea Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the conscious brain by Antonio Damasio, Pantheon, $28.95
WHEN combining neuroscience and philosophy, one popular strategy is to present many surprising neuroscientific results and then breathlessly assemble them into a grand speculative claim about “what it all means”. A second strategy is to roll up one’s sleeves and dig into a specific area of neuroscience, presenting not only the eye-opening results but also the methods and rationales behind them to argue precise philosophical points. Self Comes to Mind is an example of the first strategy – but neuroscientist Antonio Damasio is in good company. Since the 19th century many great scientists have attempted to sketch a philosophical vision, hard won living conditions, or homeostasis. over years of scientific toil. But Homeostasis, he argues, is the despite the broad appeal of this most valuable thing a biological intellectual-cum-popular genre, organism can possess. Therefore and the chatter it can raise on the evolution will surely select for intelligentsia’s cocktail party anything that best maintains it – circuit, it is reasonable to ask what even full-blown human lasting impact even the best of consciousness. This hypothesis is these tomes have on real science worthy of serious investigation. or philosophy. I suspect not much. That’s not to say that Damasio’s “The brain’s neural maps give rise to the mind – book isn’t an interesting read. but ultimately they are The book sets out to explore how about the body” the brain constructs a mind and how the mind in turn becomes conscious. It is a daunting Damasio also offers an journey, and Damasio introduces intriguing link between the some novel ideas along the way. evolution of consciousness and For instance, he argues that at the the brain’s propensity to create root of the mind is each individual “maps” – networks of neurons cell’s “desire” to maintain its ideal that represent body states. Such 50 | NewScientist | 27 November 2010
Tim Hawley/getty
Reviewed by John Bickle
A lone brain is not enough to create consciousness – it needs the body
maps allow the brain to monitor the body and make sure it doesn’t stray too far from the homeostatic ideal. Neural maps, he argues, give rise to the mind – but ultimately they are about the body. I was grateful to see Damasio apply real neuroscience to this often hand-waving notion of “embodied cognition”. Readers familiar with Damasio’s previous writings will find a nice continuation in his latest views about the crucial role emotions play in consciousness. But now he gives memory a new significance: the brain’s evolved capacity to store vast records of
motor skills, facts and events, combined with its ability to process memory records while continuing to perceive the present moment, result in the fully human “autobiographical” self – the key ingredient, he argues, that allows for the mysterious leap from mind to conscious awareness. In the end, however, the book’s adherence to strategy number one is its undoing. Rather than presenting sustained arguments, chapters are broken into often disconnected sections that read like extended aphorisms. When the philosophical going gets tough (that is, interesting), Damasio often switches topics. With a few exceptions, the science is presented similarly. We learn remarkable facts about the brain but next to nothing about how or why these facts were discovered. Of course, when fleshing out a “synoptic vision”, it is not practically possible to explain all of the scientific processes that formed the basis of one’s speculative reach. Still, there’s something deeply worrisome about books like this. Expounding on scientific results and using them to engage in philosophical speculations without explaining or criticising the processes that generate the data can create a dangerous intellectual conformity paraded as “scientific”. Damasio knows his science, but he and others would do well to remember that many readers don’t. A little explanation of the scientific process lurking behind the philosophy would go a long way. n John Bickle is a professor of philosophy and neuroscience at Mississippi State University