Minds and Brains: Do We Have Both?
Descartes' view, "I think, therefore I am," may not be entirely accurate when proposing that the essence of cognitive judgment, using the brain to "think," necessitates the use of consciousness to comprehend the state of "being." The neurodynamics of brain construct provides proficiency at completing thought processes. However, the dynamic system that creates meaning to logic involves the mind. Thus, the ideal that separates man from machine is the dual action of both mind and brain; a complex phenomenon that will prevent artificial intelligence from ever reaching human abilities.
According to Lawrence Shapiro, the multiple realizability thesis (MRT), which states that the mind can exist in a physical form, is likely unrealistic in that it is yet to demonstrate that the mind can be duplicated. Upon evaluating brain evolution and neuroscience data, he views the cognitive capacities of the brain as placing "strong constraints on the...physical organizations capable of realizing them." Both Professor Walter Freeman of U.C. Berkeley and Marvin Minsky of MIT see the mind as merely a tool used by the brain, not crediting it in the same manner as Shapiro. Minsky considers the mind and brain connection as having a psychological base rather than a physical one, where the brain not only thinks, but adapts to thinking, stimulated by memory and impacted by the concept of time. From this the mind is only a subset of processes issued by the brain. Freeman elaborates further on the presence of the mind, acknowledging that consciousness establishes the parameters by which the brain can act. Three different views on the state of mind in relation to brain function, giving evidence to the fact that the brain may induce logic, but the mind motivates the passion to convey it.
Bibliography
Freeman, Walter J. 1999. How Brains Make Up Their Minds. London, UK: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Minsky, Marvin. 2002. "Minds Are Simply What Brains Do." [Online]. Truth Journal. Available from Leadership U, http://www.leaderu.com/truth/2truth03.html. Accessed 16 Mar. 2004.
Shapiro, Lawrence A. 2004. The Mind Incarnate. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Lawrence Shapiro, The Mind Incarnate (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004).
Marvin Minsky, "Minds Are Simply What Brains Do." [Online]. (Truth Journal, 2002, available (from Leadership U, http://www.leaderu.com/truth/2truth03.html. Accessed 16 Mar. 2004).
Walter J. Freeman, How Brains Make Up Their Minds (London, UK: Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1999).
