2016/04/07

Mind–body problem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mind–body problem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mind–body problem

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
See also: Philosophy of mind
René Descartes' illustration of mind/body dualism. Descartes believed inputs were passed on by the sensory organs to theepiphysis in the brain and from there to the immaterial spirit.
Different approaches toward resolving the mind–body problem.
The mind–body problem is the problem of explaining how mental states, events and processes—like beliefs, actions and thinking—are related to the physical states, events and processes, given that the human body is a physical entity and the mind is non-physical.[1]
The problem was addressed by René Descartes in the 17th century, resulting in Cartesian dualism, and by pre-Aristotelian philosophers,[2][3] inAvicennian philosophy,[4] and in earlier Asian traditions. A variety of approaches have been proposed. Most are either dualist or monist. Dualism maintains a rigid distinction between the realms of mind and matter. Monism maintains that there is only one unifying reality, substance or essence in terms of which everything can be explained.
Each of these categories contain numerous variants. The two main forms of dualism are substance dualism, which holds that the mind is formed of a distinct type of substance not governed by the laws of physics, and property dualism, which holds that mental properties involving conscious experience are fundamental properties, alongside the fundamental properties identified by a completed physics. The three main forms of monism are physicalism, which holds that the mind consists of matter organized in a particular way; idealism, which holds that only thought truly exists and matter is merely an illusion; and neutral monism, which holds that both mind and matter are aspects of a distinct essence that is itself identical to neither of them.
Several philosophical perspectives have been developed which reject the mind–body dichotomy. The historical materialism of Karl Marx and subsequent writers, itself a form of physicalism, held that consciousness was engendered by the material contingencies of one's environment.[5] An explicit rejection of the dichotomy is found in French structuralism, and is a position that generally characterized post-war French philosophy.[6]
The absence of an empirically identifiable meeting point between the non-physical mind and its physical extension has proven problematic to dualism and many modern philosophers of mind maintain that the mind is not something separate from the body.[7] These approaches have been particularly influential in the sciences, particularly in the fields of sociobiology, computer science, evolutionary psychology, and the neurosciences.[8][9][10][11]

Mind–body interaction and mental causation[edit]

Philosophers David L. Robb and John H. Heil introduce mental causation in terms of the mind–body problem of interaction:
Mind–body interaction has a central place in our pretheoretic conception of agency... Indeed, mental causation often figures explicitly in formulations of the mind–body problem.... Some philosophers... insist that the very notion of psychological explanation turns on the intelligibility of mental causation. If your mind and its states, such as your beliefs and desires, were causally isolated from your bodily behavior, then what goes on in your mind could not explain what you do... If psychological explanation goes, so do the closely related notions of agency and moral responsibility... Clearly, a good deal rides on a satisfactory solution to the problem of mental causation [and] there is more than one way in which puzzles about the mind's "causal relevance" to behavior (and to the physical world more generally) can arise.
[René Descartes] set the agenda for subsequent discussions of the mind–body relation. According to Descartes, minds and bodies are distinct kinds ofsubstance. Bodies, he held, are spatially extended substances, incapable of feeling or thought; minds, in contrast, are unextended, thinking, feeling substances... If minds and bodies are radically different kinds of substance, however, it is not easy to see how they could causally interact... Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia puts it forcefully to him in a 1643 letter...
how the human soul can determine the movement of the animal spirits in the body so as to perform voluntary acts—being as it is merely a conscious substance. For the determination of movement seems always to come about from the moving body's being propelled—to depend on the kind of impulse it gets from what sets it in motion, or again, on the nature and shape of this latter thing's surface. Now the first two conditions involve contact, and the third involves that the impelling thing has extension; but you utterly exclude extension from your notion of soul, and contact seems to me incompatible with a thing's being immaterial...
Elizabeth is expressing the prevailing mechanistic view as to how causation of bodies works... Causal relations countenanced by contemporary physics can take several forms, not all of which are of the push–pull variety.[12]
— David Robb and John Heil, "Mental Causation" in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Contemporary neurophilosopher, Georg Northoff suggests that mental causation is compatible with classical formal and final causality.[13]
Biologist, theoretical neuroscientist and philosopher, Walter J. Freeman, suggests that explaining mind–body interaction in terms of "circular causation" is more relevant than linear causation.[14]
In neuroscience, much has been learned about correlations between brain activity and subjective, conscious experiences. Many suggest that neuroscience will ultimately explain consciousness: "...consciousness is a biological process that will eventually be explained in terms of molecular signaling pathways used by interacting populations of nerve cells..."[15] However, this view has been criticized becauseconsciousness has yet to be shown to be a process,[16] and the "hard problem" of relating consciousness directly to brain activity remains elusive.[17]
Cognitive science today gets increasingly interested in the embodiment of human perception, thinking, and action. Abstract information processing models are no longer accepted as satisfactory accounts of the human mind. Interest has shifted to interactions between the material human body and its surroundings and to the way in which such interactions shape the mind. Proponents of this approach have expressed the hope that it will ultimately dissolve the Cartesian divide between the immaterial mind and the material existence of human beings (Damasio, 1994; Gallagher, 2005). A topic that seems particularly promising for providing a bridge across the mind–body cleavage is the study of bodily actions, which are neither reflexive reactions to external stimuli nor indications of mental states, which have only arbitrary relationships to the motor features of the action (e.g., pressing a button for making a choice response). The shape, timing, and effects of such actions are inseparable from their meaning. One might say that they are loaded with mental content, which cannot be appreciated other than by studying their material features. Imitation, communicative gesturing, and tool use are examples of these kinds of actions.[18]
— Georg Goldenberg, "How the Mind Moves the Body: Lessons From Apraxia" in Oxford Handbook of Human Action
One possible explanation of the mind-body problem and the problem of consciousness is that they both arise as an illusion caused by the mind-recognition mechanism that evolved to facilitate social and moral behaviors. There is an evolutionary advantage to perceive other humans differently than fragments of tissues. Human brains are hard-wired to place humans and meat in two separate categories. This makes it natural to think in terms of mind-body duality while making it intellectually hard to accept identity between a mind and an underlying tissue. Thus, the mental causation question is ill-posed. The question is not how mind affects the brain but how the brain structure affects our perception.[19]

Neural correlates[edit]

Main article: Neural correlates of consciousness
The Neuronal Correlates of Consciousness constitute the smallest set of neural events and structures sufficient for a given conscious percept or explicit memory. This case involves synchronized action potentials inneocortical pyramidal neurons.[20]
The neural correlates of consciousness "are the smallest set of brain mechanisms and events sufficient for some specific conscious feeling, as elemental as the color red or as complex as the sensual, mysterious, and primeval sensation evoked when looking at [a] jungle scene..."[21] Neuroscientists use empirical approaches to discover neural correlates of subjective phenomena.[22]

Neurobiology and neurophilosophy[edit]

Main articles: Neurobiology and Neurophilosophy
A science of consciousness must explain the exact relationship between subjective conscious mental states and brain states formed by electrochemical interactions in the body, the so-called hard problem of consciousness.[23] Neurobiology studies the connection scientifically, as do neuropsychology and neuropsychiatry. Neurophilosophy is the interdisciplinary study of neuroscience and philosophy of mind. In this pursuit, neurophilosophers, such as Patricia Churchland, [24][25] Paul Churchland[26] and Daniel Dennett,[27][28] have focused primarily on the body rather than the mind. In this context, neuronal correlates may be viewed as causing consciousness, where consciousness can be thought of as an undefined property that depends upon this complex, adaptive, and highly interconnected biological system.[29] However, it's unknown if discovering and characterizing neural correlates may eventually provide a theory of consciousness that can explain the first-person experience of these "systems", and determine whether other systems of equal complexity lack such features.
The massive parallelism of neural networks allows redundant populations of neurons to mediate the same or similar percepts. Nonetheless, it is assumed that every subjective state will have associated neural correlates, which can be manipulated to artificially inhibit or induce the subject's experience of that conscious state. The growing ability of neuroscientists to manipulate neurons using methods from molecular biology in combination with optical tools[30] was achieved by the development of behavioral and organic models that are amenable to large-scale genomic analysis and manipulation. Non-human analysis such as this, in combination with imaging of the human brain, have contributed to a robust and increasingly predictive theoretical framework.

Arousal and content[edit]

Midline structures in the brainstem and thalamus necessary to regulate the level of brain arousal. Small, bilateral lesions in many of these nuclei cause a global loss of consciousness.[31]
There are two common but distinct dimensions of the termconsciousness,[32] one involvingarousal and states of consciousnessand the other involving content of consciousness and conscious states. To be conscious of something, the brain must be in a relatively high state of arousal (sometimes calledvigilance), whether awake or inREM sleep. Brain arousal level fluctuates in a circadian rhythm but these natural cycles may be influenced by lack of sleep, alcohol and other drugs, physical exertion, etc. Arousal can be measured behaviorally by the signal amplitude required to trigger a given reaction (for example, the sound level that causes a subject to turn and look toward the source). High arousal states involve conscious states that feature specific perceptual content, planning and recollection or even fantasy. Clinicians use scoring systems such as theGlasgow Coma Scale to assess the level of arousal in patients withimpaired states of consciousness such as the comatose state, thepersistent vegetative state, and the minimally conscious state. Here, "state" refers to different amounts of externalized, physical consciousness: ranging from a total absence in coma, persistent vegetative state and general anesthesia, to a fluctuating, minimally conscious state, such as sleep walking and epileptic seizure.[33]
Many nuclei with distinct chemical signatures in the thalamus, midbrainand pons must function for a subject to be in a sufficient state of brain arousal to experience anything at all. These nuclei therefore belong to the enabling factors for consciousness. Conversely it is likely that the specific content of any particular conscious sensation is mediated by particular neurons in the cortex and their associated satellite structures, including the amygdala, thalamus, claustrum and the basal ganglia.

Historical background[edit]

The following is a very brief account of some contributions to the mind–body problem.

The Buddha[edit]

See also: Gautama Buddha, Buddhism and the body andPratītyasamutpāda
The Buddha (480-400 B.C.E), founder of Buddhism, did not make a distinction between the mind and the body[34] and taught that the world consists of mind and matter which work together, interdependently. Ultimately, the Buddha's philosophy is that both mind and forms are conditionally arising qualities of an ever-changing universe in which, when nirvāna is attained, all phenomenal experience ceases to exist.[35] According to the anattā doctrine of the Buddha, the conceptual self is a mere mental construct of an individual entity and is basically an impermanent illusion, sustained by form, sensation, perception, thought and consciousness.[36] The Buddha argued that mentally clinging to any views will result in delusion and stress,[37]since, according to the Buddha, a real self (conceptual self, being the basis of standpoints and views) cannot be found when the mind has clarity.

Plato[edit]

See also: Plato and Theory of forms
Plato (429–347 B.C.E.) believed that the material world is a shadow of a higher reality that consists of concepts he called Forms. According to Plato, objects in our everyday world "participate in" these Forms, which confer identity and meaning to material objects. For example, a circle drawn in the sand would be a circle only because it participates in the concept of an ideal circle that exists somewhere in the world of Forms. He argued that, as the body is from the material world, the soul is from the world of Forms and is thus immortal. He believed the soul was temporarily united with the body and would only be separated at death, when it would return to the world of Forms. Since the soul does not exist in time and space, as the body does, it can access universal truths. For Plato, ideas (or Forms) are the true reality, and are experienced by the soul. The body is for Plato empty in that it can not access the abstract reality of the world; it can only experience shadows. This is determined by Plato's essentially rationalisticepistemology.[citation needed]

Aristotle[edit]

Main article: Aristotle
For Aristotle (384–322 BC) mind is a faculty of the soul. Regarding the soul, he said:
It is not necessary to ask whether soul and body are one, just as it is not necessary to ask whether the wax and its shape are one, nor generally whether the matter of each thing and that of which it is the matter are one. For even if one and being are spoken of in several ways, what is properly so spoken of is the actuality.
— De Anima ii 1, 412b6–9
In the end, Aristotle saw the relation between soul and body as uncomplicated, in the same way that it is uncomplicated that a cubical shape is a property of a toy building block. The soul is a property exhibited by the body, one among many. Moreover, Aristotle proposed that when the body perishes, so does the soul, just as the shape of a building block disappears with destruction of the block.[38]

Descartes[edit]

Main article: René Descartes
René Descartes (1596–1650) believed that mind exerted control over the brain via the pineal gland:
My view is that this gland is the principal seat of the soul, and the place in which all our thoughts are formed.[39]
— René Descartes, Treatise of Man
[The] mechanism of our body is so constructed that simply by this gland's being moved in any way by the soul or by any other cause, it drives the surrounding spirits towards the pores of the brain, which direct them through the nerves to the muscles; and in this way the gland makes the spirits move the limbs.[40]
— René Descartes, Passions of the Soul
His posited relation between mind and body is called Cartesian dualismor substance dualism. He held that mind was distinct from matter, but could influence matter. How such an interaction could be exerted remains a contentious issue.

Kant[edit]

Main article: Immanuel Kant
For Kant (1724–1804) beyond mind and matter there exists a world ofa priori forms, which are seen as necessary preconditions for understanding. Some of these forms, space and time being examples, today seem to be pre-programmed in the brain.
...whatever it is that impinges on us from the mind-independent world does not come located in a spatial or a temporal matrix,...The mind has two pure forms of intuition built into it to allow it to... organize this 'manifold of raw intuition'.[41]
— Andrew Brook, Kant's view of the mind and consciousness of self: Transcendental aesthetic
Kant views the mind–body interaction as taking place through forces that may be of different kinds for mind and body.[42]

Huxley[edit]

Main article: Thomas Huxley
For Huxley (1825–1895) the conscious mind was a by-product of the brain that has no influence upon the brain, a so-called epiphenomenon.
On the epiphenomenalist view, mental events play no causal role. Huxley, who held the view, compared mental events to a steam whistle that contributes nothing to the work of a locomotive.[43]
— William Robinson, Epiphenomenalism

Whitehead[edit]

Main article: Alfred North Whitehead
A. N. Whitehead advocated a sophisticated form of panpsychism that has been called by David Ray Griffin panexperientialism.[44]

Popper[edit]

Main article: Karl Popper
For Popper (1902–1994) there are three aspects of the mind–body problem: the worlds of mind, matter, and of the creations of the mind, such as mathematics. In his view, the third-world creations of the mind could be interpreted by the second-world mind and used to affect the first-world of matter. An example might be radio, an example of the interpretation of the third-world (Maxwell's electromagnetic theory) by the second-world mind to suggest modifications of the external first world.
The body–mind problem is the question of whether and how our thought processes in World 2 are bound up with brain events in World 1. ...I would argue that the first and oldest of these attempted solutions is the only one that deserves to be taken seriously [namely]: World 2 and World 1 interact, so that when someone reads a book or listens to a lecture, brain events occur that act upon the World 2 of the reader's or listener's thoughts; and conversely, when a mathematician follows a proof, his World 2 acts upon his brain and thus upon World 1. This, then, is the thesis of body–mind interaction.[45]
— Karl Popper, Notes of a realist on the body–mind problem

Searle[edit]

Main article: John Searle
For Searle (b. 1932) the mind–body problem is a false dichotomy; that is, mind is a perfectly ordinary aspect of the brain. In some sense this is also the point of view of Aristotle[dubious – discuss][citation needed], outlined above.
According to Searle then, there is no more a mind–body problem than there is a macro–micro economics problem. They are different levels of description of the same set of phenomena. [...] But Searle is careful to maintain that the mental – the domain of qualitative experience and understanding – is autonomous and has no counterpart on the microlevel; any redescription of these macroscopic features amounts to a kind of evisceration, ...[46]
— Joshua Rust, John Searle

See also[edit]

General
People

Notes and citations[edit]

  1. Jump up^ Crane, Tim, The Mind-Body Problem, p. 1
  2. Jump up^ Robert M. Young (1996). "The mind–body problem". In RC Olby, GN Cantor, JR Christie, MJS Hodges, eds. Companion to the History of Modern Science (Paperback reprint of Routledge 1990 ed.). Taylor and Francis. pp. 702–11. ISBN 0415145783.
  3. Jump up^ Robinson, Howard (Nov 3, 2011). Edward N. Zalta, ed, ed."Dualism". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2011 Edition).
  4. Jump up^ Henrik Lagerlund (2010). "Introduction". In Henrik Lagerlund, ed.Forming the Mind: Essays on the Internal Senses and the Mind/Body Problem from Avicenna to the Medical Enlightenment (Paperback reprint of 2007 ed.). Springer Science+Business Media. p. 3.ISBN 9048175305.
  5. Jump up^ K. Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1977, with some notes by R. Rojas.
  6. Jump up^ Bryan S. Turner (2008). The Body and Society: Explorations in Social Theory (3rd ed.). Sage Publications. p. 78. ISBN 1412929873. ...a rejection of any dualism between mind and body, and a consequent insistence on the argument that the body is never simply a physical object but always an embodiment of consciousness.
  7. Jump up^ Kim, Jaegwan (1995). "Emergent properties". In Honderich, Ted.Problems in the Philosophy of Mind. Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 240.
  8. Jump up^ Pinel, J. (2009). Psychobiology (7th ed.). Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.ISBN 020554892X.
  9. Jump up^ LeDoux, J. (2002). The Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are. Viking Penguin. ISBN 88-7078-795-8.
  10. Jump up^ Russell, S. and Norvig, P. (2010). Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (3rd ed.). Prentice Hall. ISBN 0136042597.
  11. Jump up^ Dawkins, R. (2006). The Selfish Gene (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199291144.
  12. Jump up^ Robb, David; Heil, John (2009). "Mental Causation". In Edward N. Zalta. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2009 ed.).
  13. Jump up^ Georg Northoff (2004). Philosophy of the Brain: The Brain Problem(Volume 52 of Advances in Consciousness Research ed.). John Benjamins Publishing. pp. 137–139. ISBN 1588114171. The restriction of causality to 'efficient causality' lead to the neglect of 'goal-orientation' since it was no longer necessary within [that] framework... Not considering 'goal-orientation' resulted in the neglect of 'embedment' and the consequential presupposition of 'isolation' with separation between brain, body, and environment. Neglecting 'embedment' lead to the equation of perception/action with sensory impression/movement which could be well accounted for by 'efficient causality'. Accordingly, since dominated by 'efficient causality', qualia and intentionality, as related to perception/action rather than to sensory impression/movement, were excluded from science and consequently regarded [as] purely philosophical problems. Analogous to 'final causes', 'formal causes' were eliminated as well... 'Efficient causality' is not compatible with 'embedded coding' [which] is necessarily tied with 'formal causality' and 'final causality'... Finally, the possibility of mental causation remains incompatible with 'efficient causality'. It can, however, be properly described by 'formal and final causality'.
  14. Jump up^ Walter J Freeman (2009). "Consciousness, intentionality and causality". In Susan Pockett, WP Banks, Shaun Gallagher, eds. Does Consciousness Cause Behavior?. MIT Press. pp. 4–5, 88–90.ISBN 0262512572. Walter Freeman, with his usual originality, suggest that we may be looking at the whole thing in completely the wrong way when we ask whether consciousness causes or is caused by neural activity. He suggests that circular causation is a more relevant concept in this regard than linear causation. Consciousness and neural activity are certainly interdependent, but it is impossible in principle to say that either causes the other. Thus the whole concept of consciousness as agent is simply a misreading of the true situation. Through my readings in physics and philosophy, I learned the concept of circular causality, which invokes hierarchical interactions of immense numbers of semiautonomous elements such as neurons, which form nonlinear systems. These exchanges lead to the formation of macroscopic population dynamics that shapes the pattern of activity of the contributing individuals...Circular causality departs so strongly from the classical tenets of necessity, invariance, and precise temporal order that the only reason to call it that is to satisfy the human habitual need for causes. The most subtle shift is the disappearance of agency, which is equivalent to loss of Aristotle's efficient cause...The very strong appeal of agency to explain events may come from the subjective experience of cause and effect that develops early in human life, before the acquisition of language...the question I raise here is whether brains share this property with other material objects in the world. The answer I propose is that assignment of cause and effect to one's self and to others having self-awareness is entirely appropriate, but that investing insensate objects with causation is comparable to investing them with teleology and soul. The further question is: Does it matter whether or not causality is assigned to objects? The answer is "Very much." Several examples are given of scientific errors attributed to thinking in terms of linear causality. The most important, with wide ramifications, is the assumption of universal determinacy, by which the causes of human behavior are limited to environmental and genetic factors, and the causal power of self-determination is excluded from scientific consideration.
  15. Jump up^ Eric R. Kandel (2007). In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind. WW Norton. p. 9. ISBN 0393329372.
  16. Jump up^ Oswald Hanfling (2002). Wittgenstein and the Human Form of Life. Psychology Press. pp. 108–109. ISBN 0415256453.
  17. Jump up^ A term attributed to David Chalmers by Eugene O Mills (1999). "Giving up on the hard problem of consciousness". In Jonathan Shear, ed. Explaining Consciousness: The Hard Problem. MIT Press. p. 109.ISBN 026269221X.
  18. Jump up^ Goldenberg, Georg (2008). "Chapter 7, How the Mind Moves the Body: Lessons From Apraxia". In Morsella, E.; Bargh, J.A. and Gollwitzer, P.M. Oxford Handbook of Human Action. Social Cognition and Social Neuroscience. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 136.ISBN 9780195309980. LCCN 2008004997.
  19. Jump up^ The mind-body problem and the hard problem of consciousness explained
  20. Jump up^ Christof Koch (2004). "Figure 1.1: Neuronal correlates of consciousness". The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach. Englewood, Colorado: Roberts & Company Publishers. p. 16. ISBN 0974707708.
  21. Jump up^ Christof Koch (2004). "Chapter 5: What are the neuronal correlates of consciousness?". The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach. Englewood, Colorado: Roberts & Company Publishers. pp. xvi, 97, 104. ISBN 0974707708.
  22. Jump up^ See here for a glossary of related terms.
  23. Jump up^ Kandel, Eric R. (2007). In search of memory: The emergence of a new science of mind. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 382.ISBN 0393329372.
  24. Jump up^ Churchland, Patricia Smith (2002). Brain-Wise: Studies in Neurophilosophy. Bradford Books. MIT Press. back cover.ISBN 9780262532006. LCCN 2002066024. Brain-Wise is the sequel to Patricia Smith Churchland's Neurophilosophy, the book that launched a sub-field. In a clear, conversational manner, this text examines old questions about the nature of the mind within the new framework of the brain sciences. What, it asks, is the neurobiological basis of consciousness, the self, and free choice?
  25. Jump up^ Churchland, Patricia Smith (1989). Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind–Brain. Computational Models of Cognition and Perception. MIT Press. back cover. ISBN 9780262530859.LCCN 85023706. Neurophilosophy is a rich interdisciplinary study of the prospects for a unified cognitive neurobiology. Contemporary research in the empirical neurosciences, and recent research in the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of science, are used to illuminate fundamental questions concerning the relation between abstract cognitive theory and substantive neuroscience.
  26. Jump up^ Churchland, Paul (2007). Neurophilosophy at Work. Cambridge University Press. pp. viii–ix. ISBN 9780521864725.LCCN 2006014487. In what follows, we shall explore contemporary issues in the nature of consciousness itself, the fortunes of nonreductive materialism (specifically, functionalism) in the philosophy of mind, the neuronal basis of our moral knowledge, the future of our moral consciousness, the roles of science and religion in our public schools, the proper cognitive kinematics for the epistemology of the twenty-first century, the basic nature of intelligence, the proper semantic theory for the representational states of terrestrial brains generally, the fortunes of scientific realism, recent arguments against the identity theory of the mind–brain relation, the fundamental differences between digital computers and biological brains, the neuronal basis of our subjective color qualia, the existence of novel – indeed, 'impossible' – color qualia, and the resurrection of objective colors from mere 'secondary' properties to real and important features of physical surfaces. What unites these scattered concerns is, once more, that they are all addressed from the standpoint of the emerging discipline of cognitive neurobiology. The exercise, as a whole, is thus a test of that discipline's systematic relevance to a broad spectrum of traditional philosophical issues.
  27. Jump up^ Dennett, Danile C. (1986). Content and Consciousness. International Library of Philosophy. Taylor \& Francis. jacket.ISBN 9780415104319. LCCN 72436737. This book revises the traditional view of consciousness by claiming that Cartesianism and Descartes' dualism of mind and body should be replaced with theories from the realms of neuroscience, psychology and artificial intelligence. What people think of as the stream of consciousness is not a single, unified sequence, the author argues, but 'multiple drafts' of reality composed by a computer-like 'virtual machine'. Dennett considers how consciousness could have evolved in human beings and confronts the classic mysteries of consciousness: the nature of introspection, the self or ego and its relation to thoughts and sensations, and the level of consciousness of non-human creatures.
  28. Jump up^ Dennett, Danile C. (1997). Kinds of Minds: Toward an Understanding of Consciousness. Science Masters Series. Basic Books. p. back cover.ISBN 9780465073511. LCCN 96164655. Combining ideas from philosophy, artificial intelligence, and neurobiology, Daniel Dennett leads the reader on a fascinating journey of inquiry, exploring such intriguing possibilities as: Can any of us really know what is going on in someone else's mind? What distinguishes the human mind from the minds of animals, especially those capable of complex behavior? If such animals, for instance, were magically given the power of language, would their communities evolve an intelligence as subtly discriminating as ours? Will robots, once they have been endowed with sensory systems like those that provide us with experience, ever exhibit the particular traits long thought to distinguish the human mind, including the ability to think about thinking? Dennett addresses these questions from an evolutionary perspective. Beginning with the macromolecules of DNA and RNA, the author shows how, step-by-step, animal life moved from the simple ability to respond to frequently recurring environmental conditions to much more powerful ways of beating the odds, ways of using patterns of past experience to predict the future in never-before-encountered situations.
  29. Jump up^ Squire, Larry R. (2008). Fundamental neuroscience (3rd ed.).Academic Press. p. 1223. ISBN 0-12-374019-3.
  30. Jump up^ Adamantidis A.R., Zhang F., Aravanis A.M., Deisseroth K. and de Lecea L. (2007). "Neural substrates of awakening probed with optogenetic control of hypocretin neurons". Nature (advanced online publication).
  31. Jump up^ Christof Koch (2004). "Figure 5.1 The Cholinergic Enabling System".The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach. Englewood, Colorado: Roberts & Company Publishers. p. 91.ISBN 0974707708. Also see Chapter 5, available on line.
  32. Jump up^ Zeman, A. (2001). "Consciousness". Brain 124 (7): 1263–1289.doi:10.1093/brain/124.7.1263. PMID 11408323.
  33. Jump up^ Schiff, Nicholas D. (November 2004), "The neurology of impaired consciousness: Challenges for cognitive neuroscience.", in Gazzaniga, Michael S., The Cognitive Neurosciences (3rd ed.), MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-07254-8
  34. Jump up^ http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.063.than.html
  35. Jump up^http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.045.than.html
  36. Jump up^ http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/study/khandha.html
  37. Jump up^ http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.002.than.html
  38. Jump up^ Shields, Christopher. Edward N. Zalta (ed.), ed. "Aristotle's Psychology". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2011 Edition).
  39. Jump up^ Lokhorst, Gert-Jan (Nov 5, 2008). Edward N. Zalta, ed, ed."Descartes and the Pineal Gland". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2011 Edition). Lokhorst quotes Descartes in hisTreatise of Man
  40. Jump up^ Lokhorst, Gert-Jan (Nov 5, 2008). Edward N. Zalta, ed, ed."Descartes and the Pineal Gland". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2011 Edition). Lokhorst quotes Descartes in hisPassions of the Soul
  41. Jump up^ Brook, Andrew (October 20, 2008). Edward N. Zalta (ed.), ed."Kant's View of the Mind and Consciousness of Self". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2011 Edition).
  42. Jump up^ Eric Watkins (2004). "Causality in context". Kant and the Metaphysics of Causality. Cambridge University Press. p. 108.ISBN 0521543614.
  43. Jump up^ Robinson, William, (January 27, 2011). Edward N. Zalta (ed.), ed."Epiphenomenalism". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2012 Edition).
  44. Jump up^ See, e.g., Ronny Desmet and Michel Weber (edited by), Whitehead. The Algebra of Metaphysics. Applied Process Metaphysics Summer Institute Memorandum, Louvain-la-Neuve, Éditions Chromatika, 2010 (ISBN 978-2-930517-08-7).
  45. Jump up^ Karl Raimund Popper (1999). "Notes of a realist on the body–mind problem". All Life is Problem Solving (A lecture given in Mannheim, 8 May 1972 ed.). Psychology Press. pp. 29 ff. ISBN 0415174864. The body–mind relationship...includes the problem of man's position in the physical world...'World 1'. The world of conscious human processes I shall call 'World 2', and the world of the objective creations of the human mind I shall call 'World 3'.
  46. Jump up^ Joshua Rust (2009). John Searle. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 27–28. ISBN 0826497527.

Bibliography[edit]

External links[edit]

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A Skeptical Look at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition

A Skeptical Look at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition

A Skeptical Look at the
Institute for Integrative Nutrition

Stephen Barrett, M.D.

The Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN), headquartered in New York City, refers to itself as "the world's largest nutrition school." Founded in 1992, it is said to have an annual enrollment of more than 1,600 students [1]. Its primary offering is a part-time course said to enable graduates to practice as "health counselors." Until May 2009, its courses required attendance at lectures in addition to work done through th Internet. Since that time, its program is offered through distance education only. I have serious doubts about the validity of its teachings.

Background Information

IIN's founder, director, and primary teacher is Joshua Rosenthal. The biographical sketch in his bookIntegrative Nutrition states:

He is a highly trained leader who has a Masters of Science degree in Education, specializing in counseling. With more than 25 years of experience in the fields of whole foods, personal coaching, curriculum development, teaching, and nutritional counseling, he is a highly sensitive healer whose enthusiasm shines through in all his work. His simple approach allows people to quickly and successfully reach new levels of health and happiness [2:341].
A 2002 interview in Satya Magazine indicates that IIN was originally named Gulliver's and that before founding it, Rosenthal had operated a "natural food" store in Canada [3].

In 2008, IIN's primary course extended over an 8-month period and its tuition of $8,950 was said to cover:

Weekend class instruction, lectures given by world-class speakers, a personalized website, one-on-one health counseling, access to our Online Education Forums, Warm Up classes, business cards, handouts, personalized brochures, a comprehensive CD-ROM set to help you organize your practice, books and other materials, an embossed diploma and a party for all students to help beat the winter blues with healthy organic food.
In January 2010, I noted that its course was said to be 10 months long and was offered at an "introductory rate" of $4,995.

The IIN program is open to anyone who is willing to pay tuition. No formal training or nutrition-related knowledge is required. In 2008, I was able to determine that to graduate, students were required to attend at least eight out of ten weekend seminars, complete six "health history consultations," enroll two clients in a 6-month health counseling program, pass three multiple-choice tests, and attend at least five "counseling" sessions [4]. The counselor—typically a recent graduate—provided advice about the student's experience with clients and "modeled" the student for the six-month program. (I assume that this meant that the student goes through the program with the counselor as advisor.) Students also get advice and share ideas and experiences with fellow students through online forums on the IIN Web site. However, the forums are closely monitored and critical comments are usually quickly removed.

Rosenthal's Integrative Nutrition Food Pyramid is adapted from the United States Department of Agriculture Food Pyramid. It includes extra water and a "primary food circle" that symbolizes "healthy relationships, regular physical activity, a fulfilling career, and spiritual practice, all of which are said to "feed our bodies and satisfy our hunger for living."

Each of IIN's weekend seminars includes several guest speakers. The 2007-2008 IIN catalog listed 33 of them, most of whom promote offbeat ideas. Included were Andrew Weil, M.D., Deepak Chopra, M.D., and macrobiotic guru Michio Kushi. In January 2010, the list had 24 names. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., emeritus professor of nutrition at Cornell University, delivered a lecture during the school's early years but felt negatively about what he saw and later asked that his lecture be removed from IIN's Web site. In 2012, he wrote:

Although the audience for my lecture was welcoming and quite interested, I found the program's mission to be most disquieting. . . . The speaker roster included a mixture of professionals and non-professionals, some of whom had serious conflicts of interests and some of whom pretended to be authorities when they were not. There is no question that there is a great need for public nutrition information but I strongly believe that this program does more harm than good. Even though the enrollment fee for the course was exceptionally high, a surprising number of students were nonetheless enrolling, suggesting to me an intense interest in this topic. On the basis of the information that I had at the time, there is no way that this course should receive professional recognition in the teaching of the relationship of diet, nutrition and health. The fact that the students are led to believe that they are credentialed in this subject is a disgrace. I am very much sensitive to the public's participation and interest in this topic but enrolling in this lecture series is, in my opinion, a huge waste of time and money [5].

"Certification"

IIN graduates receive a "health counselor" certificate and are automatically eligible for "board certification" by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners (AADP). In 2007, for an additional $495, they could also receive a "Certificate in Health Counseling" and 15.5 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) from the Center for Educational Outreach and Innovation at Columbia University's Teachers College, which "partnered" with IIN that year [6]. Columbia terminated its affiliation early in 2008 after receiving complaints about IIN's program. In 2009, a similar "special partnership" was set up with Purchase College, which is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. IIN itself is not accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Office of Education [7], which means that its courses cannot be used toward meeting the degree requirements at standard colleges and universities that train nutritionists.

IACET (the International Association for Continuing Education and Training), which sets the standards for continuing education providers, describes CEUs this way:

One Continuing Education Unit (CEU) is defined as ten contact hours of participation in an organized continuing education experience under responsible sponsorship, capable direction, and qualified instruction.

The primary purpose of the CEU is to provide a permanent record of the educational accomplishments of an individual who has completed one or more significant non-credit educational experiences. Awarding the CEU approved by IACET also provides a quality indicator for your continuing education and training programs because it means you have been reviewed and approved for complying with the internationally recognized standard [8].
It would be interesting to know how Purchase College concluded that IIN's program represents "quality" education, but I don't have the time to investigate.

AADP "certification" has no scientific recognition and is certainly not a sign of professional competence. AADP membership, which automatically includes "certification," is available to "any doctor or practitioner that practices 'drugless' therapies or methodologies." [9] The basic requirement is payment of $285 and graduation from one of about 65 AADP-approved schools, all of which have unscientific teachings. Membership benefits include "an impressive 8 1/2" x 11" AADP Certificate of Membership." [10]

Many IIN graduates describe themselves on the Internet as "board-certified" or a "certified holistic health counselor," and a few even describe themselves as having certification from Columbia University, Columbia University Teacher's College, Purchase Collage, and/or SUNY. It would be interesting to know what percentage of IIN graduates are able to earn a living as a "health counselor.' I suspect that the percentage is small.

What Is "Integrated"?

IIN's program focuses on foods and eating choices but contains little about the sciences of biochemistry or physiology on which dietary strategies should be based. The goal appears to be to enable students to find what dietary and activity strategies work best for them and then do the same for clients. The catalog states that IIN teaches more than 100 different dietary therapies and "analyzes the pros and cons of them all." The Dietary Theory chapter of Rosenthal's book discusses about a dozen of these approaches. These include:

  • Ayurveda, which bases food choices on alleged body types and the season of the year.
  • Blood Type Diet, which claims that optimal diet depends on blood types.
  • Five-element theory, which recommends foods based on the ancient Chinese notion that we are surrounded by "energy fields" (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water) that must be balanced to promote "self-harmony."
  • Macrobiotics, which advocates foods based on "balancing yin and yang."
These strategies —and most of the rest—not only clash with science but also with each other. But Rosenthal doesn't seem bothered by this because he asserts that "all diet programs contain elements of truth." [2:76] To assist the "integrative process," his book provides a mishmash of facts, opinions, incorrect pronouncements, practical advice, and nonsense. The nonsense includes:

  • While understanding one's body type is important, it is by no means the core teaching of Ayurveda. In India, Ayurvedic doctors usually . . . . look at a patient's susceptibility to imbalance." [2:84]
  • "If you are eating mostly earth foods, it may help to increase wood foods because woods hold down the earth." [2:88]
  • "I've seen a great deal of truth in the Blood Type categories. . . . Type O people often have difficulty metabolizing and digesting wheat." [2:101]
  • Drinking more water increases yin." [2:187]
The dietary part of Rosenthal's 12-step integrative plan includes drinking more water, and generally eating more grains and vegetables and less meat and dairy products. He advises implementing one step at a time, seeing what effect it has, and retaining what seems to make you feel best. I am skeptical of this approach. The way people feel can vary considerably from day to day and have many non-dietary influences. With so many possible variables, isolating the impact of fluid intake and dietary patterns would be difficult if not impossible.

The above summary is based on my analysis of IIN publications from 2008 through 2011. I have not had access to more recent ones, but I doubt that there have been any basic changes.

Legal Trouble

In 2013, three women filed a federal class-action complaint accusing Rosenthal and INN of discriminating against female employees on the basis of sex, pregnancy, and marital status and retaliating against employees who complained [11]. The chilling details included these allegations:

  • Under Rosenthal's direction, the company considered female employees' maternity status in reviewing their performance.
  • In 2012, acting on Rosenthal's instructions, the comppany's human resources department collected information and created a chart projecting the likelihood that each female employee will become pregnant.
  • The company has fired or demoted employees who took maternity leave.

The Bottom Line

IIN has beenflooding the marketplace with graduates who market themselves as "board-certified health counselors." Their training is certainly not based on scientific nutrition as emphasized in the degree programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Dietetics Education. That generally takes 4-7 years and includes basic sciences, dietetics, and closely supervised work with many clients. IIN provides almost none of this. It teaches—in effect—to use your own experience to inspire others.

I personally would not trust someone who lacks scientific training to tailor diets based on dietary needs or who relies on IIN's teachings to counsel patients. Nor do I believe that "counseling" a few clients is enough to enable students to provide quality advice or to know their limitations. Rosenthal's approach might inspire some people to improve their diet by moving closer to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. However, they may also absorb misconceptions about diet, health, and disease that will ultimately harm them.

Trustworthy Degree and Certificate Programs

References

  1. IIN Web site, accessed April 7, 2008.
  2. Rosenthal R. Integrative Nutrition: Feed Your Hunger for Health & Happiness. New York: Integrative Nutrition Publishing, 2008.
  3. Starks A. Dietary diversity: The Satya interview with Joshua Rosenthal. Satya Magazine, March 2002.
  4. Career Advice Forum - Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York. Indeed Web site, accessed Jan 9, 2010.
  5. J. Morris Hicks. "Confusion over clarity" at schools of nutrition. Healthy Eating / Healthy World Blog, Juy 6, 2012.
  6. Student handbook, 2007-2008. New York: Institute for Integrative Nutrition, 2007.
  7. US Department of Education Office of Secondary Education database searched on April 7, 2008.
  8. Continuing Education Units (CEUs). IACET Web site, accessed Jan 9, 2010.
  9. FAQ's. AADP Web site, accessed Jan 9, 2010.
  10. Rosenthal DA. Invitation. AADP Web site, accessed Jan 9, 2010.
  11. Complaint. Bailey Stoler et al. againat the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and Joshua Rosenthal. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Case No. 1:13-cv-01275-RWS, filed Feb 25, 2013.
This article was revised on July 7, 2013.
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The Health Coach Demystified

The Health Coach Demystified



The Health Coach Demystified

 04/21/2015 02:13 pm ET | 

2015-03-24-1427167654-7281561-dreamstime_l_healthyliving.jpg
Photo Credit: Ayse Ezgi Icmeli
It’s likely you know a health coach. And by definition, “Health coaching, also referred to as wellness coaching, is a process that facilitates healthy, sustainable behavior change by challenging a client to listen to their inner wisdom, identify their values, and transform their goals into action.”
This nouveau category of health professional can truly have a role in better health for all. Especially if trained at programs within credible universities such as Duke and Arizona State (with existing nutrition, even medical departments).
But a health coach is not synonymous with a doctor or nutritionist. Speaking of which, if you Google “health coach,” the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) will appear front and center. And this is what you see when on the home page of their website:
“Welcome to the World’s Largest Nutrition School”
Admittedly, I enrolled at IIN in 1999 (back when they actually had a physical location). Thinking that I could garner a nutrition education (post culinary school) that would truly qualify me to work with those who are ill, my new path was exciting. But after two days of the program, I dropped out — the curriculum was too elementary for my tastes and the teaching was more marketing-centric than nutrition focused. Shortly thereafter, IIN requested an “exit interview” (typically something conducted between employer and departing employee — and in cults). And the rapid realization hit me — a different kind of school was necessary (one built on credible evidence-based science) if providing nutrition guidance to those with illness and gaining knowledge and skills respected by the medical, nutrition and dietetics community was my priority.
I have kept my eye on IIN since my departure, and have been astonished at their marketing prowess and the many bold graduates who actually believe that they are nutritionists and call themselves such. Several of my patients over the years have worked with various IIN “nutritionists,” so I quickly learned how deceptive many of these folks were (and are).
Don’t get me wrong, there is incredible value in the health coaching program at Institute for Integrative Nutrition if: (1) the IIN health coach can actually be just that, as defined above; (2) the IIN health coach uses this very basic education as a starting point to create health supportive products and services; (3) thevery basic nutrition education is used to complement other credible health degrees or training; or (4) the person attending the program is simply looking for personal transformation.
Unfortunately, given my first-hand experiences, the school effectively combines a highly abbreviated online “nutrition” education with a MASSIVE marketing one. So much so that many graduates can be quite crafty when describing their training. And this is how the marketing language typically goes:
I am a nutritional consultant (or nutritionist) and health coach certified by SUNY Purchase and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.
Let me translate — this IINer did not get any degree from an academic program, rather received 43 Continuing Education Units (CEU) and a certificatefrom a university (CEUs are basically “points” that already credentialed health professionals need to maintain degrees; so if you go into IIN without a degree, the CEUs mean nothing). And this university has neither a nutrition nor medical department to speak of. But how would someone seeking help with health, someone vulnerable, necessarily know this? Most believe that this person earned a nutrition degree from a credible university.
While there are many graduates of this program doing truly incredible work and mindfully using their added value education, there are far too many who are misrepresenting their expertise. They have been “coached” to do so — in fact, since this institute of “health coach education” calls itself the “largest nutrition school in the world.”
Hats off to IIN for the good they are doing, but shame on them for devaluing those of us who have trained for years, even decades, to become nutritionists and dietitians, people who are credibly trained in the science of nutrition and its applications (and know what we know and honor what we don’t).
So, dear readers, if you are looking to become a nutritionist or are seeking one please know that IIN won’t stop deceiving, but you can become more discerning. As a start, check out their FAQ page and please:
  1. Understand what IIN really offers — a health coach certificate program


  2. Understand that IIN uses big names in health and wellness to entice you to buy into their program



  3. Know that they misrepresent what a health coach really is — they are neither “nutritionists” nor “wellness authorities” unless they have obtained additional credible training

  4. They affiliate themselves with credible universities to offer their “credential” some measure of cache
See IIN for what they really are!
To stay connected with Stefanie, sign up for her blog — bi-weekly ruminations,radio shows and recipes, and follow her on: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Her book, What the Fork Are You Eating? (Tarcher/Penguin Random House) is available wherever books are sold.
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The Game-Changing Benefits of Becoming My Own Health Coach

The Game-Changing Benefits of Becoming My Own Health Coach

The Game-Changing Benefits of Becoming My Own Health Coach

 01/13/2016 
  • Melody PourmoradiWomen’s Wellness and Lifestyle Coach www.lifeevolutionscoaching.com


SHUTTERSTOCK
In honor of Health Coaching Week, a unique week dedicated to recognizing the important work that integrative health coaches are doing throughout the world, I would like to highlight some of the greatest takeaways from my journey to becoming a health and wellness coach. It is hard to convey all of the immeasurable ways that this path has added value to my experiences and elevated the quality of my life, but I know with a great deal of certainty that I am more more fulfilled and energetic at this point in my life than I have ever been before. In learning how to support others in creating a balanced life from the inside out, it was Imperative that I first learned how to become my own personal advocate for health and happiness and that I had the opportunity to experience the transformations firsthand. 
Nutrition Is Highly Individual 
It is only natural that we each have highly individual nutritional needs. To live a life in which we are truly thriving, we must understand and cater to those unique needs. The idea that there is a cookie-cutter healthy lifestyle that works for the masses no longer holds true. Nourishing the whole self requires mindfully tuning inward in order to understand the messages that our body is conveying to us on a minute by minute basis about how different foods affect us and make us feel. Factors such as ancestry, blood type and metabolism can all play an important role in our overall health constitution, and should be given consideration in order to create realistic and manageable health goals. By understanding the ways in which my body was communicating with me, I learned that it is crucial for me to eat many small protein rich meals throughout the course of the day to feel my best. Daily food journaling was an eye opening way for me to get reacquainted with my personal nutritional and physiological needs. The consistency and detailed nature of recording what I ate, when I ate it and how I felt afterward helped me better understand how my food choices were playing out in my life and how I could modify them to better serve me. 
Nourishment Comes in Many Forms
Understanding that what nourishes and truly feeds us involves so much more than what is on our plate has really been game changing information for me. As a life coach, I always believed that our thoughts and perceptions played a large role in how we felt, but my health coach training has further proven how true this theory holds. According to my school, The Institute for Integrative Nutrition the foods that we eat are actually secondary to all of the other elements that feed us such as relationships, spirituality, career and physical activity. Personally, any form of emotional pain in my career or the experience of conflict in my relationships have left me feeling far more weak and run down than any form of food ever has. It makes complete sense that we thrive on connection, personal growth and other life achievements as our primary sources of energy and enrichment in life. Acknowledging this important insight gives us the confidence to put our time and energy into properly nurturing these important corners of our lives concurrently with our actual food choices, to further improve our health. 
The Importance of Lifestyle
The word diet has always held a great deal of stigma for me. I am confident that many people share my viewpoint since most diets are quickly dropped after the first few weeks, if not sooner. The concept of dieting is restrictive in nature, putting us in a lack mentality, and ultimately setting us up to lose before we have even begin. I believe that it would be to our greatest advantage to design a healthy lifestyle that is always accessible to us and sustainable in the long run. Putting the control back in our own hands and giving ourselves permission to live in a balanced, more free flowing way is empowering and effortless, essentially setting us up for success. I am a firm believer in the 80/20 rule. 

 If 80% of the time, we eat whole nutrient dense foods and commit to some form of physical activity, 

 then we free up 20% for indulging in our favorite foods or taking a lazy day off from the gym, without feeling any guilt or disconnect. 

 Setting ourselves up to win is key, by creating healthy habits that are achievable and free of overwhelm this process becomes a welcomed reality.
Today, a healthy lifestyle for me, means eating more greens, decreasing sugars and eating whole foods whenever possible. It also means that I treat myself to that glass of wine or that delectable sweet whenever I crave to do so. 

 Above all, living in a healthy way, consists of 
- surrounding myself with people who light me up, 
- working in a career that I am truly passionate about, and 
- committing to my spiritual practice consistently. 

 This beautiful balance of nourishing my mind, body and soul has given me the confidence to help those around me to restore their health, but perhaps even more significantly, has been instrumental in helping me access the most joyful and healthful version of myself.
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