Greg – thank you so much for your thoughtful and insightful note. I love this topic of self-consciousness, and you did a wonderfully clear job laying out the issues.
While it’s unlikely I can take on any new experimental program in this area at the moment, I’m certainly going to keep my eyes out on insights here, especially given your revealing descriptions and enthusiasm for the subject. I’ll keep you posted as anything strikes me or as new data cross my radar.
Also, I’m preparing on episode on the self for a couple of months from now. I’ve already written most of it and it doesn’t touch on self-consciousness at the moment…. but it strikes me as a possibility that I’ll add something to the episode on this. If I do I’ll mention you by name as having given me inspiration to add this. In case I go that route, can you just clarify the pronunciation of your name (is de vlee-shower a good guess?)
Thanks and let’s keep the ball rolling on ideas here.
D
Dear David,
I have long admired and followed your work with great interest, from your sparkling book ‘Sum’ to your fine and highly illuminating books on the brain. Recently, your Inner Cosmos-podcast has brought me tremendous insights and enjoyment, for which I am sincerely grateful.
My fascination with the philosophical problem of self-consciousness dates back over twenty years, resulting in my doctoral dissertation in philosophy (2011). Although I have no background in neuroscience, as a layperson I eagerly follow developments surrounding self-consciousness in this field. I am heartened by the growing interest in this subject. Yet I notice that the approach of many neuroscientists is still rather one-sided or reductionist. Your different way of talking about this topic I find very refreshing. For instance, your metaphor about a radio set, discovered by an isolated tribe, I found particularly apt: of course the electronic circuit in the radio is necessary to get voices from the radio speakers, but those with no notion or eye for things like radio waves and transmission masts will never gain a real understanding of what that ‘magical box’ (the found radio) actually is or does. In that same episode you left some opening for possible future discoveries around the potential quantum workings of neurons. I wholeheartedly agree that one should never rule out any hypothesis beforehand. But if I understand you correctly, it is not from that line of research that you expect much promise. I follow you completely there as well.
Lees verder
Greg Houwer 