The following recently-published articles display some of our current misconceptions, fantasies,
and worries about the brain, mind, and self. Such essays by learned experts help define who we are, how we treat others, and what our future might be. They therefore merit our attention and their arguments should not be accepted based on an implied argument from authority. What are they trying to tell us about these important matters and why?
“Possessive Individualism: Can We Really Own Ourselves?” by John
Médaille, The Imaginative Conservative, December
2013
“Endless fun: The question is not whether we can upload our brains onto a computer, but what will become of us when we do”
by Michael Graziano, Aeon Magazine,
December
18, 2013
Notice that all three articles are not published in
professional, peer-reviewed scientific or philosophical journals, rather in
periodicals intended for widespread public consumption. What they write in science and philosophy
journals has less impact because the circle of readership is smaller. Therefore, all of us should be concerned
about the impact of their ideas on the global public through articles such as
those above. Why? Because how we as everyday people treat
ourselves and others is largely influenced by such public-targeted articles and
books. If our concepts of our selves and
the selves of others are given inaccurate meanings, touted as something that scientists want to prove are of lesser significance compared to the functioning of our genes and brains, or when our selves are wistfully
portrayed as virtual commodities that might one day live forever embedded in
computers, our lives and treatment of each other may easily become adversely
affected. The facts and argumentation in
all such for-public-consumption writings should be treated with skepticism and
subjected to scrutiny.
