Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Reading Response to Susan Blackmore, What is Consciousness?



“Accepting dualism is giving up, but avoiding it is not easy” There is certainly a constant man struggle with mind and body, there is an extended dialogue which rises questions and no objective answers, for it seems to be further than science. According to the reading Feinberg said the way to approach the brain is to question, “what the brain does not what the brain is

The way I think about it is, of course there is certain explanatory characteristics in the individuals that can be describe through science, such as the DNA, our physical qualities, etc. Yet is through our experiences as well that we arrive to individual thinking. The body is the constant, the mind is the change. We are 50% genes 50% environment. It is not so much in the dualism of the body and the mind, because I believe that certainly is in dialogue, but rather on how mind functions, (what the brain does). As William James conclude “much of what goes on in the nervous system is unconscious and that our conscious experiences depend upon unconscious processing” .

Another interesting point in the reading that wasn’t  only mentioned but not discussed that I would have not taken for granted was the idea of Intentionality and the meaning of this word. I recently read an article by Susan Sontag titled “Against interpretation” that talked about audiences wanting to interpret all artists intentions, yet this rises different discourse especially for me as an artist. What is our need to interpret? Why do we assume there is always an intention?

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