“The more we discover scientifically about the brain the more clearly do we distinguish between the brain events and the mental phenomena and the more wonderful do the mental phenomena become.”
How the Self Controls Its Brain (1994)
Context: The more we discover scientifically about the brain the more clearly do we distinguish between the brain events and the mental phenomena and the more wonderful do the mental phenomena become. Promissory materialism is simply a superstition held by dogmatic materialists. It has all the features of a Messianic prophecy, with the promise of a future freed of all problems—a kind of Nirvana for our unfortunate successors.
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John C. Eccles12
Australian neurophysioloigst 1903–1997Related quotes
“More brain, O Lord, more brain! or we shall mar
Utterly this fair garden we might win.”
George Meredith (1828–1909) British novelist and poet of the Victorian era
St. 48. <br class="br"> Modern Love http://www.ev90481.dial.pipex.com/Meredith/modern_love.htm (1862)
Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English mathematician and philosopher
Source: 1910s, An Introduction to Mathematics (1911), ch. 5.
George Long (1800–1879) English classical scholar
An Old Man's Thoughts on Many Things, Of Education I
Adolphe Quetelet (1796–1874) Belgian astronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociologist
Introductory
A Treatise on Man and the Development of His Faculties (1842)
Robert Chambers (publisher, born 1802) book Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
Source: Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844), p. 306
Roger Wolcott Sperry (1913–1994) American neuroscientist
New Mindset on Consciousness (1987)
Context: I have a very one-track mind that needs to concentrate. I asked myself which issue is more important: whether mental states are more left- or right-hemispheric, or whether they are causal in brain function. From weighing the pros and cons, I decided that the left-brain, right-brain work was well in orbit and that it would be more important to shift my primary focus to consciousness.
The mind-brain issues are intrinsically more compelling. They carry strong humanistic as well as scientific implications. I could foresee changes in our world view, guiding beliefs, and social values. In the context of today's worsening world conditions and our imperiled future, this work seemed far more important than whether you can find a brain theory enabling people to learn faster, draw better, make better medical diagnoses, and so on.
We're beginning to learn the hard way that today's global ills are not cured by more and more science and technology.
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host
1960s, We'll Never Conquer Space (1960)