A bit less banter today. Click here to listen.
Day 2: Nothing buttery
“They know what you are thinking” read a title in the Sunday Times the other week, reporting on how neuroscientists are able to use various types of scanning equipment to apparently “read our thoughts”. Such stories are still more science fiction than practical technology, brain scanning is not quite as advanced as some in the popular media make out, however new techniques are giving us exciting insights into how our brains work and what is happening on a physical level as we think. Such advances hold a great potential in understanding and treating some of the terrible neuro-degenerative disorders that inflict so many as they age.
But we need to be careful to understand what such technology is actually telling us. There was great excitement a couple of years ago about the discovery of the “God spot”; an area in the brain that showed more electrical activity when people had spiritual experiences. There were even some attempts to try and see if people with religious beliefs had bigger or more developed “God-spots” than atheists or agnostics.
Although such research is certainly interesting, being able to provide a physical or scientific explanation for an experience should not be seen as explaining experiences away. Some philosophers refer to such arguments as “nothing buttery” arguments: Our thoughts are “nothing but” electrical impulses in the brain. The spiritual is “nothing but” brain activity. Love is “nothing but” excitable neurones.
However, knowing about the mechanics of our brain is very different from being a thinking, feeling person. Nothing buttery may work well in text books, but it helps us very little in the real world. Thoughts and experiences may be accompanied by certain brain activity, but what we actually experience is far more than “nothing but” excited brain cells.
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