A SKEPTIC'S GUIDE to the MIND: What Neuroscience Can and Cannot Tell Us about Ourselves

Despite 2500 years of contemplation by the world's greatest minds and the more recent phenomenal advances in basic neuroscience, neither neuroscientists nor philosophers have a decent understanding of what the mind is or how it works. The gap between what the brain does and the mind experiences remains uncharted territory. Robert Burton believes that while some neuroscience observations are real advances, others are overreaching, unwarranted, wrong-headed, self-serving, or just plain ridiculous, and often with the potential for catastrophic personal and social consequences. In his new book "A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind", he brings together clinical observations, practical thought experiments, personal anecdotes, and cutting-edge neuroscience to decipher what neuroscience can tell us – and where it falls woefully short. At the same time, he offers a new vision of how to think about what the mind might be and how it works.

The speaker will discuss recent advances in neurology and how a number of innate biological mechanisms shape the very act of thinking, and, more importantly, how we then think about the very act of thinking. Understanding how these sensations create certain essential limitations of thought allows us to better understand what neuroscience can and cannot tell us about ourselves, both now and in the future.

Speaker: Dr. Robert Burton