Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Refuting an article done by two naturalist scientists

I came across this site lately by two naturalist scientists who challenge view that consciousness may in fact survive the death of the brain. http://philosophyofbrains.com/2011/07/11/against-afterlife.aspx

Abstract: The paper samples the large body of neuroscientific evidence suggesting that each mental function takes place within specific neural structures. For instance, vision appears to occur in the visual cortex, motor control in the motor cortex, spatial memory in the hippocampus, and cognitive control in the prefrontal cortex. Evidence comes from neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurochemistry, brain stimulation, neuroimaging, lesion studies, and behavioral genetics. If mental functions take place within neural structures, mental functions cannot survive brain death. Therefore, there is no mental life after brain death.

My response: Surprise surprise the volume is being edited by no other than Keith Augustine. Sure mental functions are strongly correlated with neural structures. If mental functions were within neural structures the hard problem of consciousness would be solved. But it isn't. Its an assumption but the two scientists believe they can make a conclusion on the evidence they have gathered over the past decades. They never mention any of the evidence from the other side such as psi, afterlife experiments etc.

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