Introducing the brain: how emotions relate (Introduction)

by dhw, Monday, March 09, 2020, 10:57 (1503 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: I tried a comparison. The brain is not a computer, and I agree each baby brain contains some different underlying characteristics when born but there is no information intake until there is information intake to work with. That is my approach to the concept of 'blank brain'.

dhw: You might as well say babies are born blind and deaf until there are sights for them to see and sounds for them to hear. But even with your extremely limited approach, you ignore the fact that “information” is already passed to the baby in the womb.
See https://parenting.firstcry.com/articles/do-babies-cry-in-the-womb
So at what point would you say the baby’s brain has no “information intake”?

DAVID:What you have described is sensory intake.

What other tools do we have for “information intake”?

DAVID: Yes, the newborn has had that, but what is to come is informational intake at the level of ideas and concepts. The baby is absorbing the ability to use its senses at first. But it is still not intellectualizing to form its personality….

Ideas and concepts arise out of analysis of the information that has been taken in. Of course babies don’t consciously analyse what they perceive. Nor do they immediately start gabbling away in the language with which they will form and express ideas and concepts, but that does not mean part of their personality is not already present!

DAVID: …reread this statement:
DAVID: IQ can be increased by teaching and training. My 'blank' is not about the brain as its inner construction attributes. The baby 'blank' state leaves the moment it starts to experience any input from the inside or the outside. Note this: most folks cannot remember before two years of age, because the proper memory elements haven't formed yet.
In order for the baby to form its personality it must have the memory apparatus in play to begin to collect information and opinions and think about it to make up its on conclusions.

You are simply telling us that the baby’s personality is not fully formed at birth. That is blindingly obvious. But it does not mean the baby is not already born with elements of its own individual personality. There is no blank. Read your next statement!

dhw: We start before birth, and if we all handle info differently, it could hardly be clearer that the brain is not an empty space. Why do you refuse to define the word “blank”?

DAVID: I have. i'm talking about a blank personality at birth. Each new baby is a blank personality and that is the blank that has to be created over time. [dhw: don’t you mean it’s a blank that has to be filled over time?] From my medical school education its basis is 40% inherited tendencies, 40% the experiences it encounters and 20% its own integrations. (dhw’s bold)

Then your medical school training has told you that the baby is born with 40% of its personality. I don’t regard 40% as a blank.

DAVID: We have been talking at cross purposes. My blank is not your blank. We both absolutely agree that each newborn brain is somewhat different. Sorry you didn't understand my blank. My fault for not explaining better to you.

You have explained it very clearly, and what comes out of your explanation is that the baby is born with 40% of its personality. What you have not explained is how 40% of a personality can mean a blank.