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Single Idea 24027
[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / A. Nature of Mind / 8. Brain
]
Full Idea
The motive power or the nerves themselves originate in the brain, which contains the imagination, which moves them in a thousand ways, as the common sense is moved by the external sense.
Gist of Idea
Nerves and movement originate in the brain, where imagination moves them
Source
René Descartes (Rules for the Direction of the Mind [1628], 12)
Book Ref
Descartes,René: 'Rules for the Direction of the Mind' [Newcomb Library 2023], p.36
A Reaction
This sounds a lot more physicalist than his later explicit dualism in Meditations. Even in that work the famous passage on the ship's pilot acknowledged tight integration of mind and brain.
The
15 ideas
with the same theme
[philosophically interesting features of the brain]:
20914
|
The directive centre is located in the whole head
[Democritus, by Ps-Plutarch]
|
13154
|
Do we think and experience with blood, air or fire, or could it be our brain?
[Plato]
|
23218
|
The brain has no responsibility for sensations, which occur in the heart
[Aristotle]
|
23219
|
Stopping the heart doesn't terminate activity; pressing the brain does that
[Galen, by Cobb]
|
24027
|
Nerves and movement originate in the brain, where imagination moves them
[Descartes]
|
7882
|
Researching phenomenal consciousness is peculiar, because the concepts involved are peculiar
[Papineau]
|
2952
|
A 1988 estimate gave the brain 3 x 10-to-the-14 synaptic junctions
[Lockwood]
|
4902
|
Pain doesn't have one brain location, but is linked to attention and emotion
[Carter,R]
|
4904
|
Proper brains appear at seven weeks, and neonates have as many neurons as adults do
[Carter,R]
|
4915
|
In primates, brain size correlates closely with size of social group
[Carter,R]
|
4932
|
A conscious state endures for about 100 milliseconds, known as the 'specious present'
[Edelman/Tononi]
|
23216
|
The brain is not passive, and merely processing inputs; it is active, and intervenes in the world
[Cobb]
|
23226
|
There is a single mouse neuron which has 862 inputs and 626 outputs
[Cobb]
|
23513
|
Single neurons can carry out complex functions
[Seth]
|
23514
|
The cerbellum has a huge number of neurons, but little involvement in consciousness
[Seth]
|