Simon Conway Morris on animal intelligence (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, January 17, 2017, 11:06 (2867 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: I don’t know if the complexification of the brain triggered the enhanced awareness or resulted from it.
David: Not a chicken and egg problem. To me we are given a big brain and learn to use it.

dhw: What part of “we” decides and learns to use it?
DAVID: My brain is part of me and I feel I am inside my body. H. habilis probably had the same feelings and used his newly developed brain to develop new thoughts and concepts.

We have re-entered the mysterious realm of identity. Yes of course your brain is part of you, but that does not explain which part of you takes decisions to use your brain in a certain way. The question is raised again in the article you have posted on “Instinct coded in the brain”.
DAVID: Mice can be made predatory by stimulating the Amygdala:
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/48000/title/Scientists-Activate-P...

We all know that by messing with the brain, we can change a person’s identity (think drugs and disease). So are the materialists right, and “we” are our brain? If so, “we learn to use our brain” means our brain decides and learns to use our brain. If the dualists are right, then the brain is not the maker but the receiver of decisions, in which case the decider, the learner, the “I”, is not the brain. Then the dualist cannot argue that the brain is the source of consciousness.

(In my post under “Human consciousness”, 8 November 2016 at 12.16, I made a serious attempt to reconcile the two approaches, but this inevitably left wide open the question of whether there is such a thing as a “soul”.)