Thought Snack: Neuroscience and the Soul
“it is sometimes claimed that neuroscience has demonstrated that items such as memories are really just physical goings-on in certain regions of the brain. Now, what is the basis for such claims? The neuroscientist will attach certain probes, for example, an EEG, to various regions of the scalp and ask the subject to try not to think of much in order to establish a baseline reading of the electrical activity in various regions of the subject’s brain. Then the scientist will present a series of numbers to the patient and, occasionally, interrupt the series and ask him to recall the number that was two numbers removed from the currently presented number. While the subject is engaging in this act of memory, the neuroscientist records increased electrical activity in certain regions of the brain and concludes that memories just are those activities. However, it should be clear that all that has been established is a correlation, not an identity, between the mental act of remembering and the activated network of brain firing. In general, neuroscience is wonderful for providing information about the neurological aspects of mental functioning and the self’s actions, but it is of no help whatsoever in telling us what mental states and the self are. Correlation, dependence, and causal relations are not identity.”
– Excerpt from The Soul: How We Know It’s Real and Why It Matters by J.P. Moreland
