Metaphors and individualism

From The empty brain by Robert Epstein.

Some parts of his essay I believe to be true but others parts include assertions about which I have doubts. I am not in a position to dispute Epstein. His domain mastery far exceeds mine.

What I do like, is his discussion of the overweening influence of our metaphors on how we interpret the world. In particular, he looks at the evolving metaphor for the mind. My summary:

Spirit - life breathed into clay.

Hydraulic model - the flow of humours.

Mechanical model - gears and springs.

Electrical or telegraphic model

Computer model

Information processing model

He does a good job sketching out how the metaphorical representation both enhances and constrains our understanding. The map is not the terrain and the metaphor is not the mind.

The essay is rich in suggestive insights.

As we navigate through the world, we are changed by a variety of experiences. Of special note are experiences of three types: (1) we observe what is happening around us (other people behaving, sounds of music, instructions directed at us, words on pages, images on screens); (2) we are exposed to the pairing of unimportant stimuli (such as sirens) with important stimuli (such as the appearance of police cars); (3) we are punished or rewarded for behaving in certain ways.

We become more effective in our lives if we change in ways that are consistent with these experiences – if we can now recite a poem or sing a song, if we are able to follow the instructions we are given, if we respond to the unimportant stimuli more like we do to the important stimuli, if we refrain from behaving in ways that were punished, if we behave more frequently in ways that were rewarded.

I especially liked this observation.

Because neither ‘memory banks’ nor ‘representations’ of stimuli exist in the brain, and because all that is required for us to function in the world is for the brain to change in an orderly way as a result of our experiences, there is no reason to believe that any two of us are changed the same way by the same experience. If you and I attend the same concert, the changes that occur in my brain when I listen to Beethoven’s 5th will almost certainly be completely different from the changes that occur in your brain. Those changes, whatever they are, are built on the unique neural structure that already exists, each structure having developed over a lifetime of unique experiences.

This tackles a core element in the deterministic worldview - the idea that all things are directly causative and that the brain can be shaped to yield predictable outcomes. The alternate view, and the one to which I subscribe, is that while there is a degree of deterministic mechanism and there are some base levels of commonality among all individuals, for practical intents, we are all unique. What we experience, how we experience it, and what significance we attach to the experience means that everyone is as profoundly different from one another as they are similar in some basic ways.