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Humanize From Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism
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Is There a Difference Between “Mind” and “Brain”?

Season
4
Episode
8
With
Wesley J. Smith
Guest(s)
Brian R. Krouse, Angus J. Menuge, and Michael R. Egnor
Duration
1:04:08
Download
Audio File (88.07M)
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What is the “mind”?

Is it a pure product of raw brain activity? Or, is it something “other” — that can be experienced, but not measured, observed but not fully defined? Does free will exist? Are our brains just so many meat computers?

A new anthology, Minding the Brain, explores these and related issues in depth — both from philosophical and scientific viewpoints — explaining how and why “mind” and “brain” are distinct things.

Three of the contributors to the book — all Discovery Institute colleagues — join Wesley on Humanize to discuss this fascinating topic.

Editor and Contributor Brian R. Krouse is a software engineer with research interests in the philosophy of the mind, computer science, and neuroscience. He has a bachelor’s degree in physics from Whitman College, a master’s in computer science with a focus on artificial intelligence from Arizona State University, and a master’s in applied mathematics with a focus on computational neuroscience from the University of Washington. Krouse formerly served as Vice President of Hosting for GoDaddy.

Editor and Contributor Angus J. Menuge is Chair of the Philosophy Department at Concordia University in Wisconsin. His books include Agents Under Fire and he was co-editor of The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism. He is past president of the Evangelical Philosophical Society.

Contributor Michael R. Egnor, MD, is a Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at State University of New York, Stony Brook, has served as the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery, and is an award-winning brain surgeon.

Related Resources

  • Minding the Brain: Models of the Mind, Information, and Empirical Science — Angus J. Menuge, Brian R. Krouse, and Robert J. Marks | Amazon
  • Angus J. L. Menuge | Discovery Institute bio
  • Michael Egnor | Discovery Institute bio
  • “What, Exactly, Does Your Brain Do? What Can’t It Do?” | Mind Matters
  • “Why Can’t Our Memories Be ‘Stored’ in the Brain?” | Mind Matters
  • “Where, Exactly, Is Memory Stored in the Brain?” | Mind Matters
  • “How Could Human Consciousness ‘Evolve’?” | Mind Matters

Wesley J. Smith

Chair and Senior Fellow, Center on Human Exceptionalism
Wesley J. Smith is Chair and Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism. Wesley is a contributor to National Review and is the author of 14 books, in recent years focusing on human dignity, liberty, and equality. Wesley has been recognized as one of America’s premier public intellectuals on bioethics by National Journal and has been honored by the Human Life Foundation as a “Great Defender of Life” for his work against suicide and euthanasia. Wesley’s most recent book is Culture of Death: The Age of “Do Harm” Medicine, a warning about the dangers to patients of the modern bioethics movement.