World 1, Module 2

1. World I Prof. Francisco De Paula Module II The Brain, Origin and Evolution of the Human Mind.

Modern neuroscience is concerned with two main issues:

Validity of the cognitive limitations as a characteristic of themind that studies the mind.

2. Given the complexity of its structure and physiology, and since the brain is more complex than intelligent; it may not have the ontological possibility to understand itself.

The emergence of this faculty can be explained within the formal framework that biology offers as a basis for studying mans mental processes, by which we perceive, associate, learn, remember and, miraculously, achieveawareness of ourselves .

Ourbrainis precisely the part which constitutes the ultimate boundary of our knowledge.

The development of thisself-knowledgemakes possible to identify:

the foundations of the nature of our behavior

the phenomenon surrounding the chemical and electrical activities of our central nervous system,

mentalrepresentation of reality

memorized and intelligent association

This associational capacity could be regarded as the source of evolution of mansself-consciousness (self-knowledge).

The actual state of thebrainis the result of millions of years of evolution in genetics, morphology and competitive interaction and dialectic in the pressure of natural selection environment in their development.

It integrates more than one hundred billionneurons (nerve cells)in its complex network architecture.

From mans intelligence arises creativity, emotions, memory and, finally, hisself-consciousness

The brain has a bilateral symmetry :itsleft and right hemispheres are united and connected by acallous substanceand itsbase , which is constituted mainly by themedullaand thecerebellum.

Neuroscientists specialized inneurolocalizationhave determined the placement of brains attributes and functions within the brains anatomical map, leaving a good part of its unexplained physiology to the field of scientific conjectures.

Inside the brain,the limbic system extends into various heterogeneous structures which take part in the formative process and coordination of the higher functions of living beings, such as emotional and sexual behavior and memory.

The upper part of the brain houses the cerebral hemispheres. They are enveloped by the cerebral cortex which, if extended, has an area approximately of 1.5 meters and is 2 millimeters thick.

The hemispheres are divided into sections calledlobes . They are delimited by natural fissures according to their Cartesian regions:frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital.

From a physiological viewpoint, and in relation to their localized functions,each area of the brains lobes is differentiated by a sensorial, motor and associational function, also known asmotor, somatosensory and visual cortex . However, the disperse associational function remains topologically less defined.

Paul McLean: Theory of the Cerebral Trilogy ( Triune Brain )

Reptile brain :is responsible for the irrational and instinctive behavior in human beings.

The limbic system or middle brain: (includes the hippocampus, the thalamus and the amygdalae): is responsible for an incipient production, although, still automatic, of the emotions and the memory, predominating in the most evolved species of paleomammiferous.

The cerebral cortex :marks the earliest stage in the brains phylogenetic evolution, it gave man the associational faculty of abstraction, imagination, and the ability to anticipate the events concerning his existence.

Gerald Edelman:Neodarwinian Theory.

Explains how mans consciousness of having self-reflecting thought, emerged as a result of the Darwinevolution of the neuronic groupsof cells interacting with genetics, morphology and experience.

At the end of this long evolutionary road, abstraction, imagination, and the ability to anticipate the events concerning his existence have been essential inthe emergence of human self-consciousnessin its different evolutionary manifestations.

Edelman defines two systems which are also evolutionary stages:

Stage 1. Limbic stem:Founded upon the special relationship that exists between the network of functions of the anatomical units of the brain stem and the limbic system.

Stage 2. Cortical-Thalamus:Founded upon the relationship between the thalamus and the cerebral cortex.

Heestablished these two stages and systems as two independent nervous systems.

During its lengthy development, the first system, the limbic-stem, became specialized in controlling the organisms autonomous (independent) behavior, enabling the regulation of the heart, the endocrine system and the digestive functions, among others.

According to Edelman and recently many other neuroscientists, during its last evolutionary stage, the second system, thecortical-thalamus,developed the cerebral cortex.

These two systems signified an unprecedented leap in the history of evolution, especially regarding thecerebral cortexwhere higher mental activity takes place.

Surprisingly, this gave way to the development of the most complex neuronic equipment imaginable.

Hence, we find the recurring epistemological idea of attributing mantwo fundamental ways in which he acquired knowledge:

One springs fromsensitive experience , which is limited by theperceptual capacity of the senses : vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste, and

The other originates in the mental and rational process of mans advancedneourophysiology.

Plato and Aristotleproposed their principle of divided epistemology: Sensibilia and Inteligiblia - of thesensesand of theintellect-which means there is aprevious and posterior to knowledge.

Descartes , based on his dualistic vision of man regarding the development of knowledge, also defined two states in the evolution:a priori anda posteriori .

Kant evidenced the differentiation between pure and empirical knowledge by dividing the study of knowledge into the criticism ofpure reasonandpractical reason.

Locke established that the fundamental sources of knowledge are those emanating fromcontemplationand theintellectualizationof experience.

Following an identifiable and similar topic and line of reflections, all of these philosophers set forth, at different times, and with different tools, the general idea of thedualistic evolution of thought.

Considering these important stages in the evolution of the human brain, Edelman reflects: what led to the appearance of mans self-consciousness? Why has man revealed himself, and continues to do so, as an heterogeneous and asymmetric being who consents tosequels of inequalitywhich constitutethe stigma of his universal culture?

The answer, according to Edelman, has to be referred to the interrelated phenomenon of genetics, morphology and experience as part ofthe integrated process of evolution.

In hisTheory of Evolution , Darwin established the idea that, in the evolutionary process of their intelligence, human beings are subject to the same laws that have governed all living species during their development.

Evolutionis a result of competition and environmental demands given the heterogeneous capabilities of living creatures.

Morphology gives a man competitive advantage to meet the unpredictable challenges of environmental requirements in nature and, at the same time, resulting in anatomical equipment deemed necessary to preserve the hostility of their habitat.

It is thestructural and functional abilitiesof living things what ultimately makes evolution possible.

It is indispensable to determine the role that genetics have played in the merely informative process of evolution, as well as the role of morphology and experience, which in their dispute and configuration have caused the great evolutionary change in species.

Inthe case of man , his cranial capacity, the space in the temporal plane ofthecerebral cortex and, in a especiallyoutstanding manner , thesupralaryngeal , gave him, in the last moment of his development, the final impulse that would allow the definitive conformation of the attributes and abilities of his intelligent conduct.

Recent discoveries reveal that the factor of morphology is the determining ingredient in the development of the evolution of human conduct.

As he found himself weak before the evolution of his morphology, genetic heredity and abilities to compete efficiently in the arena of natural selection in order to survive, man found it necessary and possible torepresent the worldof his experience in his mind in a symbolic manner.

Man constructed and memorized conceptual images from his observation of the world. Subsequently, in trying to verbalize and associate them, these images determined the logic and syntactic order of hismental organization , and therefore of his thought.

Like self-consciousness and the consciousness of being self-conscious,languageis also a unique and exclusive attribute of man.

From the self-consciousness, we know how evolution equipped the cerebral cortex with an area specialized in language and comprehension.

These areas, called Broca and Wernickes Areas, inremembrance of its discoverers, are related fundamentally tomemory .

The coordination of their functions enables the formulating and interpretative functions of language, as well as its synthesis and its subsequent evolution.

In the history of language, thesymbolwas created first as a means of representing reality, and later, asthe symbol of a symbol , which was expressed by a name in an infinite succession of semantic representations.

Reasoning evolved exponentially due to its capacity forrepresentationsymbolic and conceptual- of reality, without limit, in the increasingly large and synthetic construction of knowledge.

Mans internal viewpoint of his complex evolution can only be explained within the scope of theexternal social consequencesof his recently acquired property of language.

Mans future evolution will occur through the development of his intelligence from the emerging evolutionary attribute of aconscious selection as a substitute to natural selection.

To decipher the genetic map of our biological structure will permit the prerogative of modifying it, intentionally substituting the natural task of evolution regarding our configuration.

This knowledge will liberate us, for the first time in history, from the constraint which the information contained in our inescapable genetic code signifies.

Our old civilization and its dangerous structures must betranscendedonly by consciously knowing our origin, which will lead to the creation of a new human order.

Will permit the task from the standpoint of ourselfcriticism - of objectively revising the recurring conduct of our cultures insecurity.

World 1, Module 2

Technology

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