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Full Idea
You can look into your mind until you burst and not discover neurons and synapses, and you can stare at someone's brain from dawn till dusk and not perceive the consciousness that is so apparent to the person whose brain it is.
Gist of Idea
Examining mind sees no brain; examining brain sees no mind
Source
Colin McGinn (The Mysterious Flame [1999], p.47)
Book Ref
McGinn,Colin: 'The Mysterious Flame' [Basic Books 1999], p.47
A Reaction
This is a striking symmetry of ignorance, though hardly enough to justify McGinn's pessimism about understanding the mind. 'When you are in the grass you can't see the whole of England; if you can see the whole of England, you won't see the grass'.
| 2543 | Brains aren't made of anything special, suggesting panpsychism [McGinn] |
| 2544 | Thoughts have a dual aspect: as they seem to introspection, and their underlying logical reality [McGinn] |
| 2545 | Free will is mental causation in action [McGinn] |
| 2546 | Philosophy is a magnificent failure in its attempt to overstep the limits of our knowledge [McGinn] |
| 2547 | There is information if there are symbols which refer, and which can combine into a truth or falsehood [McGinn] |
| 2539 | Mental modules for language, social, action, theory, space, emotion [McGinn] |
| 2540 | Examining mind sees no brain; examining brain sees no mind [McGinn] |
| 2542 | Causation in the material world is energy-transfer, of motion, electricity or gravity [McGinn] |