i begin this blog with a quotation from mortimer adler.
Mortimer Adler, in his philosophical work, notably Intellect: Mind Over Matter, addresses the relationship between the brain and thinking:
Brain as a necessary but insufficient condition
Adler argues that the brain is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for conceptual thought. In other words, while the brain plays a vital role, the human intellect, which enables us to engage in conceptual thinking, is considered something beyond mere brain activity.
a helpful paraphrase i adopted from Kenneth samples, scholar at reasons to believe (reasons.org), is, “we need our brains to think, but we do not think with our brains.”
in chapter two of dr. egnor’s book he states that “. . . one thing we can say for sure is that the popular image of the brain as a ‘meat computer’ is wrong. it is not like a machine at all. through all this, the human mind remains not only a unity but also an agency - it can do things - even while working around very severe natural brain deficiencies.”