April 2, 2008
Thought
The thinkers are thinking about thinking again. Faced with having to use their own thinkers to do this sort of thing, they’re having trouble. They’ve discovered that the brain is not a logical organ at all and that even to talk about it requires metaphors (NYTimes).”The brain confabulates,” says neuroscientist Gerald Edelman. Or, as he explains, it associates diverse sensations, defies contradictions, creates coherence, and even seeks explanations for its own unfathomable behavior. (Seem familiar?) I wonder, did the brain think up logic just to confuse us, so it could then go on its merry way writing poetry? Whether it did or not, it does. So leave it to the scientists to discover myth as a way of knowing all the while the religionists are rediscovering literalism as a way of avoiding it.
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