Get documents about "The soul
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What is the soul?
Scientific Perspectives on the Nature of
Consciousness and the Soul
Got Soul?
http://www.jazzrecordcenter.com/store/images/medium/hank%20mobley%20soul%20station_MED.jpg
Who Are You?
Who Are You?
accomplishments
memories relationships
hopes fears
dreams plans
thoughts possibilities
expectations
(“Know thyself…”)
Got Soul?
Love the Lord your God
with all your heart and
with all your soul and
with all your mind and
with all your strength.
(Mark 12:30)
The Most Important Commandment
Got Soul?
Love the Lord your God
with all your heart and
with all your soul and
with all your mind and
with all your strength.
(Mark 12:30)
The Most Important Commandment
What are we talking about?
brain
soul
mind
consciousness
mind
consciousness
soul
brain
How do you define things?
soul n. 1. The animating and vital principle in human beings, credited with
the faculties of thought, action, and emotion and often conceived as an
immaterial entity. 2. The spiritual nature of human beings, regarded as
immortal, separable from the body at death, and susceptible to happiness or
misery in a future state.
con·scious·ness n. 1. The state or condition of being conscious. 2. A sense
of one's personal identity, especially the complex of attitudes, beliefs, and
sensitivities held by or considered characteristic of an individual
con·scious adj. 1. Having an awareness of one's environment and one's
own existence, sensations, and thoughts. 2. Capable of thought, will, or
perception 3. Subjectively known or felt 4. Intentionally conceived or done;
deliberate 5. Inwardly attentive or sensible; mindful
American Heritage Dictionary
The “real” me?
http://www.tvweek.com/images/random/telltruth.jpg
The Bible and the “soul”
You will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 4:29b)
Shall I offer … the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? (Micah 6:7b)
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with
all your strength. (Mark 12:30)
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One
who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For
whoever wants to save his life (or soul) will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul (or life)? Or what
can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26)
May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless… (I Thessalonians 5:23b)
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates
even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow… (Hebrews 4:12 NIV)
nephesh psuche pneuma
Some Models
Some Student Perspectives
Rethinking Embodiment
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http://humanityhealing.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Pineal-Gland_Humanity-Healing-1.jpg
“Cogito ergo sum”
Who’s Watching?
http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_12/d_12_p/d_12_p_con/d_12_p_con_4b.jpg
Guess who…
http://www.photosfan.com/images/stephen-hawking-and-his-first-wife-jane-19651.jpg
What can a bodiless individual actually experience?
http://www.howardguest.co.uk/images/Stephen%20Hawking.jpg
Nothing! Nothing?
“Men ought to know that from nothing else but the brain come joys, delights, laughter and
sports, and sorrows, griefs, despondency and lamentations.” (Hippocrates, 460-370 B.C.)
from the introduction…
What about two minds?
Primitive Neuroscience
Advances in Neuroscience
Modern Neuroscience
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How does meaning arise from mindless mechanisms?
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/uploads/neuron.jpg
mage source:
http://domino.watson.ibm.com/comm/pr.nsf/pages/rscd.neuro
mage source: http://www.mabot.com/brain/
1011 neurons 1014-1015 connections Millisecond response
ns_picb.html/$FILE/NeuronsInAColumn1_s.bmp
Limited sensory perception
a1
w1
a2 w2
a3 w3 f( aiwi)
w4
a4
wn
...
an
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What’s inside that makes you
conscious/intelligent?
http://www.russianlegacy.com/catalog/images/matryoshka_traditional/ND50-001.jpg
Saving the baby with the bath…
Crick’s three reasons that people are surprised by the “Astonishing Hypothesis”:
1. They don’t think the reductionist approach is viable in this arena
2. The nature of consciousness (qualia)
3. Feelings of free will
Saving the baby with the bath…
Crick’s three reasons that people are surprised by the “Astonishing Hypothesis”:
1. They don’t think the reductionist approach is viable in this arena
2. The nature of consciousness (qualia)
3. Feelings of free will
Three reasons that many people may not be astonished by Crick’s hypothesis:
1. They don’t think the reductionist approach is sufficient in this arena
2. The nature of consciousness (qualia) – the “hard problem”
3. They can’t help not being astonished
Evolutionary Perspectives on the Soul
Acid, Ants, Apes, Astronauts, and Artifacts
http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/jwss/bath2004/images/Eif
fel%20Tower%2058.jpg
http://www.primates.com/chimps/chimpanzee-picture.jpg
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/
enlarge/leaf-cutter-ant_image.html
Minds as the standing waves of brains…
Clinical Questions for Souls
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Brain anomalies and what it means to be human…
How does brain trauma affect consciousness?
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Some consciousness-changing events
Agnosia
Agnosognosia
Split-brain
Neglect
Phantom limb
Korsakoff’s
Alzheimer’s
Schizophrenia
Autism
Drug induced
Hypnosis
“These are the times that try men’s souls…”
Characterize the consciousness of
a person with hemispatial neglect
“Eyes that do not see;
ears that do not hear…”
(Jeremiah 5:21)
Who Else Might Have a Soul?
(Perspectives on Animal and Machine Consciousness)
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2008/06/11/640_zombies-swarm-sandiego.jpg
Do ducks have souls?
Do ducks have souls?
Who (what) is Conscious?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_test
http://biology.plosjournals.org/archive/1545-
7885/6/8/pdf/10.1371_journal.pbio.0060202-L.pdf
http://images.inmagine.com/img/eyecandy/ec057/ec057024.jpg
Are animals conscious?
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=monkeys-get-intermediate
http://www.chimpsanctuarynw.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/burrito- http://kingdomofstyle.typepad.co.uk/.a/6a00d83
looking-in-mirror-day-one_web_mg_6812.jpg http://www.dva.gov.au/health/menshealth/images/04_mirror.gif 41c2f0953ef0111689f6d66970c-500wi
Levels of consciousness?
from “On Souls and Their Sizes”: I am a Strange Loop (Hofstadter)
Can machines be conscious?
JCIS Logo
Thinking about thinking machines…
The Theological Objection
Thinking is a function of man's immortal soul. God has given an immortal soul to every man
and woman, but not to any other animal or to machines. Hence no animal or machine can
think.
Turing, A. (1950). Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind, 59, 433-460.
Thinking about thinking machines…
The Theological Objection
Thinking is a function of man's immortal soul. God has given an immortal soul to every man
and woman, but not to any other animal or to machines. Hence no animal or machine can
think.
Turing’s response
I am unable to accept any part of this, but will attempt to reply in theological terms.
Turing, A. (1950). Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind, 59, 433-460.
Thinking about thinking machines…
The Theological Objection
Thinking is a function of man's immortal soul. God has given an immortal soul to every man
and woman, but not to any other animal or to machines. Hence no animal or machine can
think.
Turing’s response
I am unable to accept any part of this, but will attempt to reply in theological terms.
1. I should find the argument more convincing if animals were classed with men, for there is a
greater difference, to my mind, between the typical animate and the inanimate than there is
between man and the other animals.
Turing, A. (1950). Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind, 59, 433-460.
Thinking about thinking machines…
The Theological Objection
Thinking is a function of man's immortal soul. God has given an immortal soul to every man
and woman, but not to any other animal or to machines. Hence no animal or machine can
think.
Turing’s response
I am unable to accept any part of this, but will attempt to reply in theological terms.
1. I should find the argument more convincing if animals were classed with men, for there is a
greater difference, to my mind, between the typical animate and the inanimate than there is
between man and the other animals.
2. The arbitrary character of the orthodox view becomes clearer if we consider how it might
appear to a member of some other religious community. How do Christians regard the
Moslem view that women have no souls?
Turing, A. (1950). Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind, 59, 433-460.
Thinking about thinking machines…
The Theological Objection
Thinking is a function of man's immortal soul. God has given an immortal soul to every man
and woman, but not to any other animal or to machines. Hence no animal or machine can
think.
Turing’s response
I am unable to accept any part of this, but will attempt to reply in theological terms.
1. I should find the argument more convincing if animals were classed with men, for there is a
greater difference, to my mind, between the typical animate and the inanimate than there is
between man and the other animals.
2. The arbitrary character of the orthodox view becomes clearer if we consider how it might
appear to a member of some other religious community. How do Christians regard the
Moslem view that women have no souls?
3. It appears to me that the argument quoted above implies a serious restriction of the
omnipotence of the Almighty. …should we not believe that He has freedom to confer a soul
on an elephant if He sees fit? We might expect that He would only exercise this power in
conjunction with a mutation which provided the elephant with an appropriately improved
brain to minister to the needs of this sort. An argument of exactly similar form may be made
for the case of machines.
Turing, A. (1950). Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind, 59, 433-460.
Thinking about thinking machines…
The Theological Objection
Thinking is a function of man's immortal soul. God has given an immortal soul to every man
and woman, but not to any other animal or to machines. Hence no animal or machine can
think.
Turing’s response
I am unable to accept any part of this, but will attempt to reply in theological terms.
1. I should find the argument more convincing if animals were classed with men, for there is a
greater difference, to my mind, between the typical animate and the inanimate than there is
between man and the other animals.
2. The arbitrary character of the orthodox view becomes clearer if we consider how it might
appear to a member of some other religious community. How do Christians regard the
Moslem view that women have no souls?
3. It appears to me that the argument quoted above implies a serious restriction of the
omnipotence of the Almighty. …should we not believe that He has freedom to confer a soul
on an elephant if He sees fit? We might expect that He would only exercise this power in
conjunction with a mutation which provided the elephant with an appropriately improved
brain to minister to the needs of this sort. An argument of exactly similar form may be made
for the case of machines.
4. In attempting to construct such machines we should not be irreverently usurping His power
of creating souls, any more than we are in the procreation of children: rather we are, in either
case, instruments of His will providing mansions for the souls that He creates.
Turing, A. (1950). Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind, 59, 433-460.
Is Cognition (Consciousness?) Algorithmic?
Yes
Alan Turing (dead mathematician)
Marvin Minsky (computer scientist)
Douglas Hofstadter (cognitve scientist)
Eric Baum (computer scientist)
Gobs of philosophers
No
Roger Penrose (mathematical physicist)
John Searle (philosopher)
Bobby (Samford freshman)
Gobs of other people who don’t know any better
Expanding Our View of the Soul
http://stagelab.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/flatland_cover.jpg
Consciousness Limited
“If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now
http://www.nature.com/ki/journal/v62/n5/images/4493262f1b.gif
that you claim you can see, your guilt remains” (John 9:41)
In search of an antidote for limited consciousness
• Professional bias
• Stuck in a rut
• One track mind
• Narrow minded
• Distractions
• Chronological snobbery
• Strange attractor
• Old dog
“Consciousness narrows as a function of age. As we know more, we see less.”
(Alison Gopnik, Toward a Science of Consciousness, Tucson AZ, 4/12/08)
One expanded consciousness catalyzes another
