2007-05-22 09:54:34 · 11 answers · asked by WWTSD? 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage
Famous case. After a severe brain injury, his personality changed from congenial to abrasive. Isn't personality part of the soul, which should exist separate from the body?
2007-05-22 09:55:24 · update #1
Ahhhh, but no, Bad Squirrel .... the personality is part of the mind ... the mind and soul are separate, not the mind and body.
2007-05-22 10:03:10 · answer #1 · answered by MyPreshus 7 · 4⤊ 1⤋
What Plato said.
The body is in a constant state of change and can therefore never indicate the true nature of the soul. The personality would be only the poor physical attempt at the perfection that would be the soul. Like the true 'green' is much more pure than the 'green' we see in this life.
So, the mind/psyche/soul (and I'm thinking that's what you are asking - so if I'm wrong then sorry) is more like a bad reflection of the true soul at best. Once the reflecting tool (the body) was injured, it would be even more different as it was searching for a new channel of expression.
2007-05-22 10:03:55 · answer #2 · answered by phrog 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A neat part on morality: Morality While taking refuge or finding personal meaning in a conventional religion offers the prospect of some repose and a set of instructions for moral and right action, the issue always rises of how that system explains or justifies the evil in the world, especially the violence done by humans to each other and their environment. Evolutionary explanations of why humans have developed aggressive, xenophobic, and genocidal tendencies offer a 'why' for these behaviors, but don't offer an obvious set of instructions for moral and right action. We humans generate an array of aggressive, affiliative, curious behaviors seen also in higher mammals, but we posses also the remarkable ability to have some insight into, and choice about, their operations. Thus we are able to become moral agents, rather than moral patients, and chose those behaviors that are most life affirming - to become our own gods. Such a course, a training of the introspective intelligence required for insight and choice, is a much more arduous option than adopting the simple precepts of an established culture or religion. But, it is more likely to create humans who can extend their compassion and caring beyond the tribal and cultural boundaries that are the origins of intolerance.
2016-04-01 02:55:41 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hmmm. I never said the mind and body were seperate. Both exist, and both affect one and the other. I prefer to think of it as, the brain is a sophisticated biological computer, the mind is the software running on this computer.
Too many times I've heard poeple, who love the "computer" metaphor, but they seem to like to forget about the software part of that...I guess anything that might even be considered to possibly, by a long stretch of the imagination, might even possible have a teeny tiny bit of the metaphysical to it just sends them into a screaching fit of the hives.
Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia!
2007-05-22 10:03:35 · answer #4 · answered by Hatir Ba Loon 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The mind is not the brain. A damaged brain does not affect the mind. It is simply the mind cannot access the brain. Have you heard a well documented story - a patient loses his memory because of damaged neurons? When a neurons regenerated the memory came back. If the memory resides in the damaged neurons then regenerating neurons would not restore lost memory. But that is not the case. The memory/mind is intact no matter what happen to the brain.
2007-05-22 10:08:07 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
People are answering it. No the personality is in the brain and is not within the soul.
2007-05-23 13:14:26 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes,the mind body seperation was a theory in medicine, that many neurophysiologists now feel is probably wrong.
2007-05-22 10:54:20 · answer #7 · answered by Don't Fear the Reaper 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I had a similar account with a friend first hand.
There is NO DOUBT that the physical brain is responsible for personality and consciousness.
2007-05-22 09:59:42 · answer #8 · answered by Dark-River 6 · 3⤊ 1⤋
It's all well and good to have your God theories inside your own little world, but it's tough to actually apply them to the real world.
2007-05-22 09:59:41 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
I think they'd probably prefer NOT to explain it. And by the lack of responses, I'll have to say that I'm right on this one.
2007-05-22 09:58:15 · answer #10 · answered by ZER0 C00L ••AM••VT•• 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋