Philosophy and the Brain

This century is seeing a exponential increase in knowledge in scientific disciplines like neuroscience, behavioral biology and artificial intelligence to mention a few. How can this guide our philosophical thoughts?  It leaves us with an interesting backdrop for a journey into philosophy.

Not a journey of long-winded discussions and speculative systems, but rather a contemplation on how the underlying principles uncovered by this knowledge impact on us as thinking beings. A better understanding of the thinking machine should lead to a better understanding of thinking itself, isn't it?

Photo by the blowup on Unsplash

The brain is the hardware of our mind and our thoughts. It provides an interface to both our external and (body) internal world by processing the input of our senses. And it makes preset templates available to our mind to construct our 'world vision' from.

The interface that gives the mind access to the world has a (fairly) fixed setup. A lot of the preset templates for behavior and thinking that formed during early years development are difficult to shift later on in life. On the other hand, some parts like the frontal cortex remain more malleable.

The mind is wearing colored glasses, any form of absolutism it comes up with should be treated with caution ... 

I strongly believe in the importance of diversity of thought. To me it is as important for the health of our thought systems as genetic diversity is for the survival of a species. Adherence to one thought system should not mean endeavoring the extinction of others. We are all only ever right to some extent, always wrong on at least something. Be it rational thought, irrational thought, religious or non-religious beliefs, there should be mutual respect for all.

I am talking about thought diversity across different cultures, across individuals within a culture, across the different fields of study and artistic expression. There is no 'this is better or worse' in absolute terms. There is 'this seems more appropriate depending because of what I am looking for and considering the circumstances'. 

Trying to prove someone wrong for the way the think or live and then knock them for it misses the point: we are all only ever right to some extent, always wrong on at least something. 

And now, time to get on with that journey ...