In The Head
Jun 20th, 2010 by admin
Bertrand Russell, My Philosophical Development (1959)
I experience the sensation of my thoughts being spatially localized in the region of my head; they appear to be coming from inside my head. And i think everyone gets this feeling.
But why do we get this sensation? Is this sensation inherently biological in nature? Is it secondary to our knowledge that brain is the seat of our intellect? Is it an unconscious inference made from the fact that ears, eyes and mouth are present on the head? [I think it is inherently biological.]
More importantly, is this sensation of any significance? Does it mean anything? Does it tell us something about the mind-body problem?
Philosophers who have always described mind as having no spatial extension, how did they explain this sensation to themselves? Perhaps they ignored it, or perhaps they thought that it didn’t mean anything.
