An extract from ‘Touching a Nerve: The Self as Brain’ by Patricia Churchland:
“My brain and I are inseparable. I am who I am because my brain is what it is. Even so, I often think about my brain in terms different from those I use when thinking about myself. I think about my brain as that and about myself as me. I think about my brain as having neurons, but I think of me as having a memory. Still, I know that my memory is all about the neurons in my brain. Lately, I think about my brain in more intimate terms – as me.”
It’s a concept that is not easy to grasp. But such a realization is what will help us make sense of ourselves and the world around us.
