Understanding the Human Psyche: Brain, Mind, and Consciousness
Brain and Nervous System
The brain is the nervous system’s main organ.
Dimensions of the Human Being
The mind represents an intellectual, emotional, volitional, mental, and spiritual dimension.
Philosophical Perspectives
Cybernetics
Cybernetics views the brain as a complex computer.
Hylemorphism
Hylemorphism argues that matter cannot exist without a specific form. The body is the material basis of the soul.
Rationalities
Rationalities refer to the multiple applications, uses, and value of reason.
Conscience
Conscience is the awareness of possibilities open to us as beings with intelligence, freedom, and privacy.
Deliberation
Deliberation is the ability to identify the right desire in a particular situation and act on it.
Heart and Emotions
The heart is commonly associated with human emotions and feelings.
Three Questions about the Human Psyche
- Advances in Artificial Intelligence: Comparing the human brain to a powerful computer raises the question: “Someday, might machines possess something akin to a brain?”
- Genetic Engineering: The ability to modify embryonic cells leads us to wonder if our mind is merely a manifestation of the information contained in our genes.
- Beliefs and the Soul: Different beliefs question the possibility of a soul surviving death.
Materialism and Physicalism
Materialism or physicalism maintains that mental activities are merely physicochemical processes, viewing the brain as a complex computer.
Emergent materialism suggests that mental phenomena emerge from the physical, with the material reaching various levels of articulation: physical-chemical, biological, and mental.
Dualistic Perspectives
Platonic Dualism
Platonic dualism posits that a human being is a composite of a mortal body and an immortal, immaterial soul that pre-existed and seeks the world of ideas.
Aristotelian Hylemorphism
Aristotle’s hylemorphism views the soul and body as complementary and inseparable principles of a single human reality, only separable in imagination.
Cartesian Dualism
Descartes advocated a radical dualism based on scientific knowledge, emphasizing the union of two distinct substances: the extended body and the non-extended soul.
Popper’s Three Worlds
Popper proposed three interacting worlds:
- World 1: Observable physical bodies.
- World 2: Mental states and consciousness.
- World 3: Products of the human mind.
Structuralist Theory
Structuralist theory, as advocated by Laín Entralgo, argues that the mind is not merely an emergent property of the brain but a distinct new reality. The brain’s dynamic structure allows for actions governed by thought, self-awareness, and freedom.
Signifiers of the Term “Logos”
- Logos as language: The ability to use language to refer to reality.
- Logos as social being: The capacity to live in society by sharing language with peers.
- Logos as knowledge: A knowledge-oriented approach to the world, deliberating about what is good for oneself and others.
The Value of Feelings and Reason
Aristotle
Aristotle considered feelings as desires guided by intelligence. Reason directs the choice between various desires through deliberation, leading to wisdom.
Saint Augustine
Saint Augustine emphasized the importance of loving feelings, suggesting that love prevents actions contrary to love.
Hume
Hume viewed reason as a “slave of passions,” serving to direct both peaceful and violent emotions that motivate human action.
Kant
Kant argued that reason can mobilize the will to act, but acknowledged the existence of moral feelings like respect and dignity, associated with reason and freedom.
Zubiri
Zubiri attributed to humans a “sentient intelligence,” where intelligence is inseparable from feeling, emphasizing that our relationship with reality is both intellectual and sentient.
Theories of the Person
Tertullian
Tertullian was the first to use the term “person” as a legal subject with rights and duties.
Boethius
Boethius defined a person as an “individual substance of a rational nature,” emphasizing individual autonomy and rationality.
- Individual substance: Humans are not subject to fate but exist independently.
- Rational nature: Humans are part of nature but possess self-consciousness, will, and sociability.
Kant
Kant enriched the concept of the person as free and autonomous, capable of self-legislation in a moral world. Autonomy grants dignity to persons, who should be treated as “ends in themselves,” not as means.
Current Philosophy
Contemporary philosophy often considers the human being as a person, encompassing both individual and communal realities.