“I think, therefore I am” is the neat bit of logic with which Descartes rescued the Self from philosophical skepticism. If I think, he means, then there must be an I, a conscious self that’s thinking. Descartes went on to say “this I — the soul by which I am what I am — is entirely distinct from the body.”
That’s the classical statement of Cartesian Dualism, commonly known as the mind-body problem, and philosophers are still grappling with the question. Is there a ghost in the machine, a mind, a consciousness that is separate from the body, or is human thought no more than the sum of neurons and synapses doing their electro-chemical, mechanical work?
That’s also the question that excites the new field of Cognitive Science, which combines modern brain-sciences with philosophy. Scientists are opening up the mysterious world of human, and animal thought, and philosophers still argue the location of the True Self.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
Patricia Churchland, Chair of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego
Antonio Damasio, Neuroscientist and Head of Neurology at the University of Iowa College of Medicine.