From Mario Beauregard and Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Mario Beauregard
Amanda Gefter’s article on the “cultural war” over the brain significantly misrepresents non-materialist neuroscience (25 October, p 46) and does a disservice to your readers.
Most participants in the 11 September symposium “Beyond the Mind-Body Problem: New Paradigms in the Science of Consciousness” at the United Nations were medical doctors or neuroscientists who work with them. We do not question materialist models of the mind-brain complex merely for ideological or political reasons. We want to move beyond them because we have not found them adequate explanations of mind-brain interactions, nor do they point to useful treatment plans.
Your writer’s attempt to smear scientists who are looking for new directions, while perhaps entertaining, is a poor substitute for thoughtful coverage of a growing area.
Indeed, the breezy explanation by Andy Clark that Gefter quotes: “There’s nothing odd about minds changing brains if mental states are brain states: that’s just brains changing brains”, reveals a fundamental lack of knowledge of mind-brain interactions. In such interactions, the mind state often changes the brain state as a result of new information or a new choice of attention. Information and focus are not material entities.
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