Introduction: You Are Your Brain, You Are Not Your Brain
Jason Tougaw
Yale University Press eBooks April 24, 2018 DOI: 10.12987/yale/9780300221176.003.0001 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that extreme rhetorical positions about the "cerebral subject" (e.g., "you are your brain" or "you are not your brain") produce conceptual impasses in neuroscience and philosophy of mind, and that literary works, literary criticism, and the neurohumanities better represent the complex questions of how the brain contributes to identity, consciousness, and self. |
Abstract
The introduction examines contemporary debates in neuroscience and the philosophy of mind, demonstrating the conceptual impasses inevitable when writers adopt extreme rhetorical positions about the so-called “cerebral subject”—for example, “you are your brain” or “you are not your brain.” Literary works, literary criticism, and the neurohumanities respond to such debates by eschewing reductive rhetorical positions in favor of representing the complex questions that arise when they ask what philosophers call “the hard problem” of identifying roles the brain plays in the making of identity, consciousness, and self.