The Self: A Philosophical and Neurological Exploration - Prof. Kurowski, Slides of History of Sociological Knowledge

Download The Self: A Philosophical and Neurological Exploration - Prof. Kurowski and more Slides History of Sociological Knowledge in PDF only on Docsity!

Week 3

The self

What is it?

• (^) A thing?
• (^) A substance?
• (^) How does it relate to consciousness?
• (^) How does it relate to brain and body?
• (^) Is it an illusion? Is it real? It it just a matter of perception?=These are metaphysical questions?

Cont’d

• (^) Hume: the self is just a “bundle” of perceptions, not a mental entity or a substance(Descartes). It is not real
• (^) Metzinger(2004): the self is a self-model. Its not real.
• based on our experiences we assume a mental entity to which they(experiences) all belong to or are generated by.
• (^) We don’t have access to brain processes or mechanisms, so we assume a mental entity or a self
• (^) Northoff(2016): agrees and disagrees with Metzinger
• The self is real an an experience based on specific brain processes; but it is subjective, not objective, like gold or water

Investigating the self

• (^) SRE=self-reference effect(and measure): self-specific stimuli are remembered much better than non-self-specific stimuli
• This effect operates in other domains as well: emotions, sensorimotor, words, faces, etc.

Cont’d

• (^) CMS: involved in SRE, random thoughts, mind wandering and consciousness
• Northoff(2016) argues: CMS(and resting-state) turn objective neural processing into personally(subjective) experiences of self and consciousness.
• (^) This may answer the very old question: What is the nature of subjectivity and self?
• (^) Mental/psychological? Neural?

Is the self social? A paradox?

• (^) Studies show: CMS are functionally connected with temporo-parietal junction and the temporal gyrus: structures involved in inferring and understanding other people’s thoughts and perspectives.
• (^) Meta-analysis: DMPFC and PCC showed emotional, social-cognitive, resting-state activities. Radical finding: the brain is highly social or socially constructed; there is very little to distinguish self-specific from non-self-specific activity in the brain
• self: neural or social? = fallacy: false dichotomy.

Cont’d

• (^) The brain’s resting state is by default subjective and social
• (^) It seems to know your name by default and no specific or more robust neural activity is required to represent it.
• (^) it carries a neural signature of yourself: the resting state activity

The relational self

• (^) Self: virtual, embodied, embedded(and social) and spatio-temporal
• Brain: A spatio-temporal, neuronal structure and organization- not a physical or mental entity.
• (^) John and Lucie: only neural, neither social nor embodied aspects are active. Conclusions:
• (^) self: found in the relation between brain, body and environment.
• (^) It is neither purely neural, physical nor mental.