Try to imagine what it is like to be a dog. You have four paws, a tail and irresistible urge to pee on the nearest tree. You’re looking at the world from about half a meter, depending on the breed. And the ball! You just have to get the jumpy little ball right now.
Ready? Great. Now, can you tell how it feels to be a dog?
In 1974 Thomas Nagel famously asked: What is it like to be a bat? His answer was simple yet profound, in short — we don’t know. One can imagine having wings instead of arms, flying instead of walking, even hearing surroundings instead of seeing it. But imagining that gives us only a sense how human could feel in a bat’s body, not how a bat feels in his body. We can know everything about the bat’s body, how it reacts in different conditions, but we cannot experience its conscious mental states.
So how it feels to be a dog? You can only tell how YOU would be feeling being a dog, but that’s all, I’m afraid.
Let’s try something different. Imagine what it is like to be another person? Someone who you know well — your mother, brother, girlfriend, husband. Seems simpler, right? First — because you’re both humans and share common human emotions and experiences, second — you’ve spend much time together and you know his/her behaviour, habits, strengths and weaknesses very well. But again, even if it’s a well known person, you’ll never learn how it is to BE that particular human being. To do that, you will need to have direct access to other’s consciousness, and that’s not possible (at least in our times).
But wait, you have access to one conscious process — the one of yours. Isn’t that great? At last you can really answer my next question, can’t you? What is it like to be YOU?
To put it into (few) words may seems a little hard, but you have no doubt you know how it feels being you. You have your body, which you quite like, despite some imperfections, you have memories from your childhood and more recent past, you know how you react in different situations. You have made psychological self-portrait, not entirely verbalised. You’re aware of your feelings in that particular moment — when you are scrolling through the page with your finger on the mouse/touchpad/screen — looking at the text from the point just behind your eyes. Because that’s where the essence of you is placed, isn’t it?
The essence of a person — one distinct human being — is the topic I want to discuss.
What makes us separate persons, so different from each other?
Who is reading these words and thinking of her-/him-/it-self?
What makes me, me?
Is it brain? Am I the brain? If that’s the case, imagine that it is possible to replace single brain cells with another similar cell and that someone replaces your entire brain, cell by cell. It is still you? Or is it your copy?
Or maybe what “I” really is, is the conscious process taking place in the brain. But that should bring us to scary conclusion that every night we fall asleep we’re practically dying for a few hours and are somehow restored from a backup every morning…
What do you — whoever “you” are — think of it? What is it like to be (or not to be)?
English Conversation Course for Part-Time Students
Monday, 16 December 2013
Week 7: What is it like to be...?
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Albert, I must say that you forced me to make a really deep reflection on the topic of your presentation. And after asking myself a question: why I am as I am, I started to think that “me, myself and I” must be something more than just connections between the brain cells. I want to believe that my ideas, thoughts, emotions as well as experiences are not just a result of chemical and biological reactions happening in my body, but are the effect of something more complicated. Something that people generally perceive and call "a soul". Probably, a concept of the soul is still a controversial one, mainly because there is no one and convincing or reasonable explanation for what it actually is. Some believe that our soul is only a philosophical theory, others are convinced that it is a thing really existing: an immaterial but inseparable part of a human being. In addition, there are those, who define soul as a creation of our brain analysing and interpreting stimuli coming from our bodies and surrounding. Frankly speaking, for me it is not important how the soul is defined. Whether it is a root of life, self-awareness, human psyche, a thing given to us by some unspecified mighty power or a compilation of all of those characteristics. Those are simply kind of frames, descriptions that people use to categorize this phenomena, because when something is named, it can be understood easier. But for me, a particular description is not important - I believe that my soul creates me as a person, no matter how I call it or where it originates from.
ReplyDeletePiotr, I'm glad you found (or was forced to find :)) the topic worth the consideration.
DeleteAlthough I'm not a fan of a soul concept I think you've presented (in really elegant way, I must say) the common human desire to be something more than flesh and blood. I'm not different. But isn't the undefined soul just another kind of frame you mentioned? Maybe not used to understand better but to ease the uncertainty of existence. I think the soul concept should be placed in the same level as its proposed definitions cited by you. And from those, self-awareness ‒ the consciousness is the closest to my understanding of myself.
Well, 'understanding'... I wish. The main problem with examining the consciousness is the paradoxical nature of that examination ‒ the concscious process is the object, the subject and the tool in the same time! That doesn't help at all.
For now I leave it here.
But before I end I must ask you one question ‒ why particular description of a soul is not important for you? If you believe that it creates you as a person, is't that description the most important knowledge you could ever acquire? Isn't the soul without the (attempt of) understanding just another victim of Ockham's razor?
Well, your question can be considered from many points of view. Indeed, if a some kind of phenomenon has its definition, it immediately becomes more probable, even real (however at the same time not always easier to understand). An accurate definition certainly would help, because maybe then more people could tell whether they have a soul or not. On the other hand, a lack of a precise term makes this phenomenon more flexible, in the sense that everyone can find in it something for themselves: for one the philosophical approach can be more meaningful, for another “soul” can be related to a self-awareness or creation of our brain analyzing and interpreting stimuli from our bodies and surrounding. And, as you said (I totally agree with you on that), if a role of the soul is to allay an anxiety associated with the uncertainty of existence, I guess that a strict definition is not necessarily needed, and could take away a comfort that comes from having the soul from many people.
DeleteFinally, some philosophy in the blog :)
ReplyDeleteI would approach this topic from materialistic point of view. Its all in our brain.
"soul", "emotions", "feelings".... we want to believe its not , we want to add a "purpose" to our life and justify lack of logic for some of our actions.
for a much as we like to think there is something bigger - it all comes down to biology.
Isn't our evolution as homo sapience directly connected with evolution of our brain ?
What is a mystery - is what still not discovered about our brain ! Apparently we're using only around 3 - 5% of our brain capabilities. What if we can use 20 % ? or a half ? Maybe future is not in technology, but in biology ?
Yes, we could say our brain is a product of evolution. But approaching this problem from materialistic point of view we should say that we ARE the brains and noone is owning them. The jelly in my head is not mine ‒ it is me. Somehow we developed the tendency to perceive our bodies as separate entities, connected to our selves by relation of owning. But (again ‒ looking at this in a materialistic way) this separation is just an illusion.
DeleteAnd as for the hidden brain capabilities I recommend you to have a look at: this.
DeleteFurthermore, you are not 'dead' while sleeping - in fact the brain is working much more during this phase of your day than any other. I suppose many people underestimated how many evil plans were created that time. Don't you often wake up and think (not literally, but the idea is somewhere around, showing up during breakfast or toilet time) - "I will do XXX today/soon"?
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ReplyDeleteI’m really, really, really, really glad that I’m answering this post now, not at the end of the week!! It wound be a real pain in the… brain. My first inclination was the philosophy of Sigmund Freud and his theory of id, ego and super-ego. I also think that we are made up of a mixture of morality, innate desires, education and awareness of the world around. Most men watch out for nice breasts (http://i1.kwejk.pl/site_media/obrazki/2013/12/2b83b8dc4bf41891d4daa34e8ad5ddeb_original.jpg?1387193175) and women always don’t have enough pair of shoes (http://www.demotivation.us/media/demotivators/demotivation.us_I-HAVE-ENOUGH-SHOES-AND-CLOTHES-Said-no-woman-ever.-_13586993065.jpg). People quickly adapt to the new situation. Remember when you used to be kid and you grew up quickly in short period of time? Coordination problems , different perspective , etc. The same feeling you get as you stand on the platform and talk to someone looking from the top. And always thought arises : I that how tall person feel? I think that "I" is the result of experience, education , environment , instilled values and the current situation - nothing more . Do not wonder how it would be a dog , a cat or a neighbour , because it is obvious I would look on it from my perspective (The only exception is man becoming woman. We all know what would man do - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPOLWgeNR4I).
ReplyDeleteEmpathy has its limitations , because we can understand someone's behaviour, but whether you agree with someone or not is your our individual matter . Me, it’s just me - my brain, mind and feelings. Nothing more, nothing less. Just me.
(Personally, I do not like such topics , because whatever you write, everyone will have their own beliefs. There will be discussion/argument, persuasion and after two months or so, we will think alike as before)
And to show you how similar we are – just for men: http://www.wykop.pl/link/1150397/tylko-faceci-to-zrozumieja/
Jakub, thank you for your view on the thing.
DeleteYou've wrote that empathy has limitations. I can agree with you on that in general, but I think we can't say we can understand someone's behaviour. We may think we understand it, based on our own experience, and sometimes we might be quite close to the truth (at least in our cultural circle, or - as you showed - based on the shared gender), but it will never be the full understanding. We may know the root of some behavior but we'll never know what is it like to experience this behaviour in someone's skin. Another words - we may stare at the same pair of breast and we may share the conniving glance, but the emotions in each one of us will be slightly (at best) different.
You got me wrong - I wrote that we CAN understand someones behaviour, not that we always do - that's the first thing. Secondly (I will continue with the breast example), we can agree and understand why men are staring at breast (cause they're http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIfOjkB17BA), but how do we feel about them and what shape or size do we prefer is our own matter. We understand and share each others basic feeling, but we can have different opinion, That was my idea, when I was writting my words.
DeleteI think I've got you right - I'm just saying (maybe a bit provocatively) we can't understand anyone at all. Now we should probably start to argue about the meaning of 'understanding' and discuss many of the epistemology concepts, but we do not have enough time, I think. (On the other hand, one can say we have our whole lives. ;) )
DeleteBe or not to be that is the question – Shakespeare wrote that and I think this is the most important question even more important than – Is there any God.
ReplyDeleteBeing with myself for (conscious) 18h I think it is hard to answer on that question. Really :-)
I often think about other people thoughts about me or what I do or how I behave. This can be learn and you can be good at this skill – reading people. It becomes very handle when you are working with strangers or on a street. Sometimes you can read from someone face or posture who is he and how he reacts on what you do or say. Some recruiters use this skill to evaluate you in short debriefing. It happen always before your “true” recruiting meeting. Sometimes it is a short conversation in elevator. They ask you about something simple but unsuspected and judge you by your reaction to the question rather than your answer. This is I think most close to your Albert – question “What is like to be in someone else skin”.
Did you had – all of you my blog friends :-) – that kind of debriefing at all or not, and if so, than describe it please here.
Sławek, thanks for your thoughts. I will refer to first thing you wrote.
DeleteThe answer for Shakespeare's question is for me pretty straightforward - to be! I've emerged from the tangle of biological wires for an instant, and now I'm experiencing the world. It's like winning the lottery! Chances are I will never going to learn "why I am" or "why the world exist", but at least I can try and allow myself to be amazed.
I would just give you another Shakespeare's quotation, which may lead you to more specific conclusion: "methinks I see.. in my mind's eyes". I believe there is something more about human being - apart from the religion - what defines a person. It is being called a soul, you desires.
DeleteI have heard sometimes ago "why I am there, what is the purpose of my existence?" from my friend and I must say it is very terrific to realize what you are living for. Pleasure? Knowledge? I found my answer rather quickly: "to feel".
I can see everybody is touched by your questions! I also read your presentation "on one breath" (...hope there's such idiom in English). In any case these are very interesting thoughts and I often think how other people may feel, to understand them better, but I have never wondered how it's like to be them... Can't wait to ask my family members during Christmas Eve: "What is like to be you?"
ReplyDeleteI constantly discover that the more you try to understand other people the easier it is to be close to them, love them, like people you used to couldn't stand. Some books I've read advised: "try to feel how it's like in other people's shoes" and I did, but your questions made me think about that more widely. This week on the blog seam to be “the week of enlightenment” for me :) Many thanks to all of you!
When I think about it looks like it’s all in our brains. Think about people who lost their memory, they can become different person – at least in movies. So memories, experiences, education… all saved in our brain makes us who we are. I don’t need anything else to explain that – it’s already a miracle, don’t you think?
PS: I was once wondering how it would be to be extremely reach – when I had to manually carry away all the rubble from my apartment during renovation (3rd floor, no lift)… But it didn’t change anything ☺ and I had to all do it by myself… Neighbors didn’t wonder what it’s like to be me back then… Pity, maybe they would help ☺
Kasia, I'm really happy you liked my presentation. You've raised the subject I was waiting for - brain damages and their consequences.
DeleteProbably the most famous case of personality change after brain injury was the one of Phineas Gage, who after the accident became practically a different person. This and many other examples* also brought me to the conclusion that the brain is what I am. And just like you, Kasia, I think that's a pure miracle. Furthermore it's not the end of the topic, it's just the beginning - if electric current in brain cells can become self aware what that tells us about nature of the universe? But that's the theme for another discussion...
Going back to Mr. Gage - if some of you thing his case is to extreme and has nothing to do with your daily experience, think of how your mental powers, mood, even personality can change in course of the day. Lack of vitamins in your body can decrease your ability to perform difficult intelectual tasks and lack of sleep can change you into a delirious grumbler. We are very fragile, and often very inconsistent beings.
*For those looking for interesting (and very enlightening) examples of people changed by brain injuries I highly recommend the Oliver Sacks' book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.
Philosophical themes are not my forte. I am rather a 'scientific mind'. I agree with you. I also think that the whole secret lies in our brain. Evidence of this can be TBI (traumatic brain injury). In most cases, they lead to certain disorders in level of consciousness. When a person comes from the period of unconsciousness starting to show long-term effects of brain injury. They can be divided into physical disturbance, cognitive disturbance (mental processes such as memory, concentration) and changes in emotion and behavior (self-control, motivation, etc.). A significant change in the person concerned, there are difficulties in the experience of feelings and emotions, in a similar way as they did before the injury. Impulses, which were previously controlled, they have no control. So as a result one can become different person. It happens that these people are not aware of the change in their behavior. So (in my opinion) the brain is responsible for who we are, what we think, how we perceive ourselves.
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ReplyDeleteDog... is dog. You is you. All creatures are unique. No one knows how is it to be an ant. The best part of life (in my opinion, of course!) is to learn from each others; to get to know each others; to respect differences and to appreciate company of others. Like with newborn baby. You cannot predict or expect anything. All you can do is to learn, day by day, about behaviour and character of this person. Of course society will affect on us but the base - the base will stay the same.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry but this subject is out of the blue for me. I never liked any tricky questions based on philosophy, psychology, etc. For me it's not working at all. And the biggest problem is not that I am afraid of looking deep into myself - no, no. I have problem with explanation what is the purpose of it?!
Hi there again!
ReplyDeleteYour article stuck to my mind and finally I had to confront with it!
In fact, humans and animals have several characteristics in common such as eating and sleeping. However, there is a basic difference between human beings and animals.The main distinction between the human and the animal is human beings have a fifth faculty, which is the intelligence to inquire into the truth of our existence. This is exactly what we are doing right now by raising this question that who actually we are.
In other words, it is profoundly valuable skill to be introspective—to question the meaning and purpose of our existence and attempt to find a solution to human suffering—that distinguish humans from animals. If someone as a human doesn't try to find answers to his identity and make spiritual advancement, then his life has been wasted.
In brief, as human beings, we have to take this advantage to use our intelligence to find answers to fundamental questions such as “Who am I?” and “What is the purpose of my existence?” If someone doesn't look for answers to these important questions and be preoccupied with eating and sleeping, then he has been wasting the opportunity to realise our true identity and purpose and obtain actual spiritual happiness.
Ewa, thank you for your reflection and sorry for sticking something to your mind.
DeleteI wouldn't be that harsh to someone who's not trying to answer the question about the meaning of life, universe and everything. This doesn't make her/his life wasted (actually, looking for the ultimate answer and spiritual happiness can make you willing to get wasted), but maybe a little... deficient?
Nevertheless, given the fact that we'll probably never going to find out the answer (other than, say, 42) maybe it is even a good idea to avoid this topic and focus on more mundane amusements?
Whom am I kidding... I honestly think that the journey into one's own mind is essential for every human being for better understanding of the whole being-a-human thing. Even if the final answer is (and will always remain) hidden. (Yikes, it sound like Coelho, almost...)
I think the notion that there really exists some sort of "self" that is coherent and whole is just an illusion created for us by our brains. In reality brain consists or many different parts, often competing with each other, fighting, making mistakes and always changing. It's all quite messy. We feel our mind is a single entity, but this is far from the truth. There is an interesting study from the University of Stanfrod on that topic.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course the RadioLab podcast made a whole episode that strives to answer the question you posed. It's called "Who Am I?". Highly recommended. Some other relevant episodes besides "Who Am I?" include "Where Am I?", "Inner Voices", "When Brains Attack!" and "Are You My Brain Double?".
Of course we can go even further. You could say we are just big colonies of highly specialised cells. Or even further than that - "Richard Dawkins" argues in his classic book "The Selfish Genes" that we are just vehicles for our genes, designed to carry them to the next generation. What follows is a conclusion, that it's not genes that are a tool used to create us, but rather that we are a tool used to perpetuate genes.
Ludwik, thank you for the links and your conclusion - I couldn't agree more. And because you've wrote outright that there is no such thing as 'self', I can finally recommend the book which brought me to asking all of you those silly questions: The Ego Tunnel by Thomas Metzinger.
DeleteThe book looks very interesting. Can I ask you though - is it based on hard science, or are those just loose deliberations?
DeleteIt's definitely the scientific book.
DeleteI have to read it then. Thank you for the recommendation :)
DeleteWe have Christmas. Probably most of us are on vacation and you forcing me to think about such complicated topic? :) I am joking of course, great article, but I had to read it twice :)
ReplyDeleteWhat is it like to be me? The less you know, you will live longer :)
What makes as separate persons? I think many factors, probably we still don’t know all of them but currently I think genetic and sum of situations we went through (good and bad) but the most important situations in my opinion are those in childhood. Adult persons can handle and explain in logical way some bad situation, children usually get it wrong.
According to some medical researches not only brain stores “Us”. There is also something like cells memory. A lot of people after transplantations start to do or think like the transplanted organ`s donor.
During this course we discussed the topic related to transplantations. And regarding this article I have the same impression - yes, we are the brain. If we replace any other part of the body (or just simpky don't have it or lose), we are still the same person. But what about the brain? We can't do anything if our brain is "not working".
ReplyDeleteWhat about the feelings? Again - replacement of heart doesn't change feelings. They are related to our brain. We can change them if we thoroughly consider them, we can deny or trigger feelings. So yes, simply I can say I'm my brain. That's why when I'm depressed or not familiar with some situation and I have to guess something I don't feel comfortable and I do things I would normally never done.
Some people can say that who we are is also defined by our soul. But what the soul is? This is deeper subject and it means something else for ech person, even if they believe that soul doesn't exist.
About being a dog - I just found this funny image at 9gag http://9gag.com/gag/a5dQBXy It's funny, yet very wise. Read it! :)
ReplyDeleteI feel like this article is posing a question about the existence of soul, which is often "accused" of being the carrier of self. In my opinion, such thing as soul does not exist (together with God, by the way) and the self is stored in our brain. We differ from each other because our brains differ - they're all constructed slightly different and they're storing completely different sets of information which were acquired by us during our lifetime. Brains constantly learn, store and purge information and as such I believe they're not transplantable. Simply exchanging brains between people would cause them to probably lose all motor abilities and maybe even die from lack of basic life-sustaining actions like breathing, which are also controlled by brain. In my opinion brain learns to control the body in very early stages in development, before birth. It is the reason little babies when born can breathe already and have all the essential reflexes in place. And this is the reason why transplanting the brain wouldn't work.
About dieing for few hours at night - this week's article about sleep clearly shows that the brain doesn't stop working during sleep, it only changes the way it works to most probably do regeneration and reordering the data stored, so if we are only a brain (and no soul) we don't die by any means, we just get other kind of consciousness during sleep.
I would agree and disagree at the same time. While I think that God may not exist or rather is not influencing us in any way, I believe the soul is there, it leads us to do things and think further beyond everyday's necessities. We are 99% the same as monkeys - my strict mind tells me that 1% cannot be so much the difference (not comparing that somethink is working in 100% or 99% - so is it working at all? yes probably).
DeleteThere has to be something different - I do not know if it is the soul or something else - for my needs I call it a soul, whatever it comes from :)
With reference to your question- on the surface I reckon that I am like most young and Polish men. According to me, I have dreams and goals for the future what is more, I am determined to make my dreams come true. I only count on myself.
ReplyDeleteThey are people who have some similarities in appearance and sometimes when we meet a stranger we even say : haven’t we seen each other before? When it comes to personality, everyone has some scars etc. but more important thing is that each one of us has our own identity.
Being different is not only on what is seen on our physical appearance. It is what we really are inside.
Unfortunately, I can’t recommend being myself because my character is very hard.
Sławek brought up very interesting topic which is connected with others’ thoughts and feelings about us.