Good scepticism

"It is language and culture that turns brain into mind."

Kenan Malik in his excellent book
"Man, Beast, and Zombie: What Science Can and Cannot Tell Us about Human Nature" (2002).

I think this excellent book shows a good scepticism about the claims of neuroscience.

Rightly held up to ridicule

"...Anthony C. Grayling, M.A.,  D.Phil (Oxon), asserts that "mental phenomena are causally determined, which means that we have no free will." "

"Another eminent neuroscientist, Dr. Susan Greenfield, states that "neuroscience can explain everything about ourselves ..... Religious experiences are due to temporal lobe stimulation. Our brain tells us what to do, not the other way round. What we see isn't really there at all." "

From Thomas Szasz's "The Meaning of Mind: Language, Morality and Neuroscience", 1996, 2002.

Hopefully, these two quotes seem ridiculous.
They are just two examples of the folly that the contemporary belief in "neuroscience" can lead to. This belief is not really based on any substantial new discoveries.

"The Science of Copper Wire".

Neuroscience =

"The Science of Copper Wire".

------------------

What is neuroscience about? Presumably it is about nerves. What are nerves? Not much more than copper wire. Devices for transmitting messages. Nothing more than copper wire.

See my point?
Understand my exasperation?

My exasperation at the nonsense of neuroscience is very instinctive.

In this blog I will try and put it into words.

"The Meaning of Mind" by Thomas Szasz.

I wrote most of this blog about three years ago now in 2013 and I am surprisingly quite happy with it and glad it is here.

I am now reading "The Meaning of Mind: Language, Morality and Neuroscience" by the great Thomas Szasz to further educate myself about the annoying contemporary entity "neuroscience".

I will write more when I have read it!

I will confess that I once had a date with a neuroscientist and I found it quite amusing that she said she had a "gut" feeling about me that she "had to trust". Surely she should have trusted her nerves being a neuroscientist! lol!

I have a "gut feeling" about neuroscience that there is something not quite right about it!

Whilst my view has become more moderated and qualified since 2013, I will leave the blog up as a justified reaction to the modern vogue for neuroscience.

Clueless about "Alzheimer's Disease"!

I am watching a news report about people examining brains to find a CURE for "Alzheimer's Disease" - rather than to actually FIND "Alzheimer's Disease." W.T.F.???

[What is the difference between "Dementia" and "Alzheimer's" ?????
Is it a posh euphemism for a deteriorating lifestyle??.......
Where the feck is the (biological) illness??.......]

...........................

The above just find this very hard to believe. Tests my faith in the human intellect.

-------------------------------------------------

A DISEASE = A DISEASE = A DISEASE =
"a demonstrable defined biological process, lesion, infection etc."

"SYMPTOMS"                    DO NOT=/ A DIAGNONSENSE......
"SYMPTOMS"                    DO NOT=/ A DISEASE........
"TREATMENT"                  DOES NOT =/ A DISEASE.....

Who was Alzheimer?
And where the feck did he leave his disease??? - coz no fecker can find it!!!.....

The Original Title of the Blog!

The original title of this blog was - "Nerve Science Is Nonsense."

Perhaps many people would say that I should have stuck with that! :)

If I say "X,Y,Z is NONSENSE!" then it may be true or partly true.
But my purpose in affirming that may be to try and get others to EXAMINE whether
the view ("x,y,z is nonsense") is correct or not!

RHETORIC is about HOW TO PERSUADE!
Science IDEALLY should be free of rhetoric!

The current title is maybe more RHETORICAL, DIPLOMATIC and CONCILIATORY and hence will persuade people to do what is important.

ID EST - CONSIDER FOR THEMSELVES (in the light of anything this blog may add)
if, how and why "Nerve Science" MAY be nonsense!......

"The important thing is not to stop questioning,"
Albert Einstein.

"The important thing is not to stop questioning EVEN WHAT YOU THINK YOU ALREADY KNOW!"

- is an addition that would perhaps be made by the sceptic filosofer,
Francisco Sanches (1560-1623),
author of
"Quod nihil scitur" (On How Nothing Is Known), 1581.

Never Mind the annoyance of Nerve Science - how about the shame of Nerve Ethics?

Never Mind the annoyance of Nerve Science - how about the shame of Nerve Ethics?

Neuroethics - the mere word provokes in me deep moral anxiety.

:)

USAmerican Pscyhology would do well to go back to one of its roots!

The US American William James - a founder of modern psychology - is the originator of the vitally important quote

"Psychology is not a science ; it is the hope of a science."

It is we ourselves that we are studying - hence objectivity is - James implies here - IMPOSSIBLE.

This humility is needed very much today - far more than when William James lived - since US psychology is fully in the grips of Nerve Science.

Nervous Disposition!

Maybe "Nerve Science" could help people determine if they are of a "nervous disposition"....

...........

Just a suggestion.

Just trying to help!....

Visceroscience

As a Professor of Visceroscience my gut feeling about Neuroscience is that it is often rather indigestible.

It is the belief of Nervescience that the Brain is like a computer.

We Visceroscientists also affirm that the Stomach is like a computer!

The stomach itself is like a large hard disk.
Into which the software of food is put.
Like in real life the "software" is then processed into some other shite.....

:D

-------------------------------------

"Neurophilosophy" is also a recent neologism from my Favorite Cuntry in the Whole Wide World - the USA!...

I can't actually transcribe the torrent of abuse that I produced on first hearing this word.

And for me that means it must have been serious! ;)

Erm.

Nervefilosofy

Stomachfilosofy

Legfilosofy

Kidneyfilosofy

Erm.

Erm.

Arrrrgh.

Arrrrrggggh.

------------------------------------------

The BCN - Brain and Central Nervous System.

In Anatomy, Physiology, Medicine etc..... the Brain and Nervous System are ONE BODY SYSTEM - made of the same kind material and functioning as one. The "BCN". ......

Brain Science and Neuroscience are indeed usually interchangeable SYNONYMOUS terms - reflecting this scientific truth.

But this terminology needs "tightening up" and it would be helpful to do so I think.

Therefore Neuroscience could be called Brainscience - and indeed it is.

And hence Neurofilosofy - could be called Brainfilosofy or even Cerebrofilosofy!.....

hmmmmm.......

Where "Science" is rendered as "o-Logy" from "Logos" - one could end up with....

Neurology - which is simply a branch of Medicine concerned with the physical nervous system.

--------------------------------------------------------------


"Nervescience" as we practise it NOWADAYS is about observing and measuring "Neurotransmitters" and "electrical brain scans".

Neurotransmitters are biochemical human substances..... like enzymes except in the nervous system.....

Far too much is concluded and extended from what is observed from such data......

Neurotransmitters like Dopamine work in relation to extremely basic body functions - like eating, breathing, sleeping.....

They have NOTHING AT ALL to do with emotions and decisions.

Interfering with them has no or little effect on anything ANYWAY.

Let alone on anyone's behavior, emotions, thorts or feelings.....

Interfering with them - in the context of "Psychiatric" poisoning - usually means DESTROYING them and their functioning as well as the nervous system itself.



"Neuroleptic" LITERALLY means - destroys the nerves.

The chemical cosh that bashes your body to smithereens!

Worse than a real cosh!....

So-called "Neurospychiatry" ("Nerve-Mind-Healing") is a PSEUDOSCIENCE and one of the most damaging crimes against humanity that has been known to us.

Harsh condemnation. Fully warranted.

------------------------------------

NEUROLOGY is a branch of Medicine (or what is left of it) concerned with the (fisiological) nerves and the treatment of fisiolojical problems of the nerves and the nervous system!......

NEUROSCIENCE - a frightening new entity from the USA - is something surprisingly different!......

.......

:)

--------------------------------------------------------------

Mood is almost entirely subjective and a choice.

The idea that a substance can change one's mood is almost as wicked as the idea the the state of one's mood can in itself constitute an "illness" anyway.

An excess of "serotonin" - supposedly a "cure" for something that does not and cannot exist - the "illness" of "depression" - will only harm and destroy body systems.

The "medication" is only officially THORT to cause this anyway!

And then this effect - an excess of "serotonin" - is then THORT to have effects. :) :O

As with all neurotransmitters they are always concerned with BASIC BODY FUNCTION -appetite, sleep etc.

NOT moods or thorts or feelings.....

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Possibly the biggest factor in ending anyone's "depression" is their realizing that it does not and cannot exist as an illness. 

[ :) ].

In my experience, what gets labelled "depression" (for example) is almost always related to beliefs and beliefs about life events - not physiology (other than basic health).

Telling someone that they have an "illness" when they obviously do not can never help.


......

Cogitation on Thort Science.

Cognitive scientist ???  A Scientist of Thought????  Hmmm.........

I don't want to put a spanner in the cogs of global culture or anything but this term reminds me of the Orwell observation:

"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle." - George Orwell.

Translated into even planer Inglish - obvious things are often ignored or go unrealised.....

I have a problem with the term "Cognitive Science" alone......

"All definite knowledge — so I should contend — belongs to science; all dogma as to what surpasses definite knowledge belongs to theology.
But between theology and science there is a No Man’s Land, exposed to attack by both sides; this No Man’s Land is philosophy."

Bertrand Russell.

I thort a science of thort and the mind was Psychology.

Cognition is the process of thinking itself.

.......

The definition of this "Multi-Disciplinary Multi Discipline":)  as according to wiki....

is maybe rather unweildy....

People like Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins are seeking the definitive defeat of the Theology trench so to speak.

A pretty futile trench war! :)

Leaving that aside! :

Are they taking us any further into genuine science - facts about the world - by destroying one trench in a Pyrrhic victory?......

.........

Whatever the quality of the science - Nerve Science "HAS AN AGENDA"

Whatever the quality of the science - Nerve Siense "HAS AN AGENDA"........................

Anxiety....... is just Neuroscience!.

Ramble on "Existentialism is a Humanism" (1940s) by St. Jean-Paul Sartre.

"We get a "dopamine rush" - like we do, for example, when eating chocolate - when we also get information that supports what we believe."

Source : the "stunning" new book "Eyes Wide Open" by (the stunning) Noreena Hertz.

[This is itself supposed "information" from "Nerve Science".
I got a "dopamine rush" - I think - when I realized how much bullshit it was!
Anyway - note the appropriation by so-called "scientists"
of so-called "recreational" drug culture slang "rush". Dopey fuckers!
What can go by the name of "Neuroscience" is some of the most
pathetic rubbish that humans have ever considered to be scientific
knowledge. ]

If only Jean-Paul Sartre had known this in the 1940s when "Existentialism is a Humanism" was published!

He would have perhaps changed the thrust of the whole work. It would have helped him give better advice to the anguished war-scarred youth of France. They had a desperate desire for guidance in making the right decisions at that horrifically difficult period of European history.

Peeple found "Existentialism" - which is concerned in some way with decision-making by the way - irrational, unhelpful, illogical and inhuman. If they understood it at all. Sartre's intention with this piece mentioned above was to answer such accusations. I would say that I find the current tendency towards Nerve Science and things like it to be illogical nonsense UNLIKE Sartre's work. And worse than unhelpful - significantly damaging as well!

The ideology of Nerve Science is an attack on human freedom. It allows us to say "It's the dopamine, darling. That's why I need another whisky." Whereas Jean-Paul would say something like : "I like whisky, therefore I drink whisky."

To further defend Existentialism, it unambiguously maintains the existence of human freedom.

People had something to live and die for in the 1940s. Now - people find it harder to have things to feel they can live and die for - as even basic human relationships are annihilated by capitalism. In this sense, the 1940s were a picnic.

Inability to relate.

I totally and utterly reject and do not comprehend the supposed entity and discipline of "Neuroscience"....

I am flabbergasted that it even exists..... and flabbergasted that I am supposed to relate to people who even employ the word - let alone practice the "discipline".

CAPITE?....

[The abuv is a gud example of a "justified act of exaggeration". Howeva in this case I don't think it is an exaggeration. The point is that no one takes any notice of what you say however you say it, no one understands it, and what you say has NO effect regardless of the way it is said.... :)...

For example, would we accept a society or culture whose discourse included "Stomachscience" or "Visceroscience"????
Nerves are principally for communication in the body......like copper wires in a telefone exchange. Hence in a sense they are far less complex than stomachs...... Draw your own conclusions.
One may be that therefore "Stomachscience" at first sounds utterly comic and ridiculous as an entity; and yet is IN REALITY LESS ridiculous than "Neuroscience" as an entity.....!! Serious!

An undoubted element of "Neuroscience" is OPPRESSION........

A Gut Reaction to Nerve Science!

A Gut Reaction to Nerve Science! AKA "Neuroscience".

Nerve science - the science of copper wire - is a load of nonsense!....

Neuroscience and its utter bollocks really gets on my nerves!........