Using Brain to Study Brain

(MIND, n.) A mysterious form of matter secreted by the brain. Its chief activity consists in the endeavor to ascertain its own nature, the futility of the attempt being due to the fact that it has nothing but itself to know itself with. (Devil’s Dictionary)

A brilliant quote, 1 of my favourites. But the idea is often taken too far (by critics of materialism) to produce nonsense. Some think since our brains are probably morally contradictory this can be expanded to cover everything we think about. A well articulated eg. of such nonsense: “If my brain is the result of random mutation and natural selection, what justifies my belief that my philosophy has any correspondence to the way things actually are, and furthermore why should I trust any such justification which is, after all, just a product of my brain?” (Source)

I’ll be concise by spending only 2 sentences refuting this: If the brain is a result of natural selection then it was selected for its ability to help us survive by representing the world in meaningful ways. There’s no reason to think the representation is perfect but there is every reason to think it corresponds to reality in a meaningful way. If you’re not convinced read
The Simple Truth by Eliezer Yudkowsky. If you are, read it anyway. For 6800 words it’s probably the most brilliant story I’ve ever seen.

The above quote has more insidious aspects. I’ve often seen it used to argue for the existence of God, though this doesn’t follow at all (worse for theists, the argument actually destroys the possibility of knowing anything including God). It’s also defeatist, it can be only used to tell us to stop wondering about the universe. It’s like the stupidity of the brain-in-vat-hyperskeptic who thinks we’re all in a Matrix-like world and therefore everything’s pointless. The shortest refutation comes fron Eliezer again: Sure, when the dust settles, it could turn out that apples don’t exist, Earth doesn’t exist, reality doesn’t exist. But the nonexistent apples will still fall toward the nonexistent ground at a meaningless rate of 9.8 m/s2. (Source)

This also reminds me of those who think consciousness is something inherently mysterious and unknowable. Colin McGinn thinks the human mind is under cognitive closure — that the brain simply does not have the capacity to understand its own workings. It might seem he’s right (how can you use a system to describe itself in its entirety?). Counterexample: you can use language to desribe any/all parts of language. Maybe consciousness is closed to human consciousness but there’s no evidence for it. We haven’t got all the goods yet but this could mean that it’s closed or that we’ve yet to find the answer. The following are examples of the same kind of stupidity:

• To stop looking for the solution to problems in consciousness because the answer could be intrinsically out of reach
• Someone who stops going outside because he/she could be a brain in a vat
• Someone who crosses the road without looking because they believe the bold quote and think their brain’s visions of an oncoming truck don’t represent any aspect of reality.

Only one of these could be a real problem — if it turns out that our brains aren’t advanced enough to grasp all aspects of consciousness. But then we should be modifying our brains so we can reach that goal.