The Brain, Consciousness & Illusion of Truth

by Karol Ondrias, Emma Nezinska

Overview

...How do we know that something is true or false? How does the brain discern the truth? What kind of mechanism allows the brain to interpret the information received in the shape of electrical and chemical impulses to which it is constantly exposed? Is it the case that our brains are endowed with appropriate algorithmic rules for discriminating between truth and untruth, alongside certain rules for handling, say, optical information? Is it the case that the brain produces illusions of truth like it does illusions of vision? My answer is in the positive, and this is what I shall be seeking to show in this essay.

An essay in style, The Brain, Consciousness and Illusion of Truth is a valuable addition to the literature on the mind/body problem and an engrossing account of the human brain with its services and disservices to the self. Karol Ondrias is one of the 'disturbing' authors who will not stop at taboos. Problems he addresses here are of our postmodern era, when people, still tightly controlled by their ancestral genetic code and ethnocentric cultural stereotypes, are acquiring an awareness of this and trying to review the authenticated behavioral patterns and preconceived ideas still shaping their lives. The notion of the distorted and manipulated reception of the world cuts through the whole of the essay.

...The human race, the author argues, cannot afford any longer remain content with the illusory certainties provided by the 'selfish' genes and by parochial cultures (however dear to the cockles of our heart the latter might be). But isn't it just another illusion - to try and free the self from the comfortable bondage of biological and cultural forces? The essay will take you to the further and farther reaches of human nature and this may be part of the answer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781581127799
Publisher:	Universal Publishers
Publication date:	12/19/1999
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.51(d)

Table of Contents

	Preface	9
	Introduction	13
Chapter 1	Illusion of Vision	19
	The brain: Not a mirror of truth	22
	Deception for the sake of survival	24
	Brain the Liar	26
	Casting the die	29
	Mozarts and Salieris	33
	The paradoxes of appearance	35
	Yet more distorted reality	38
	The brain in torment	39
	You cannot trust your brain	40
Chapter 2	Illusion of Truth	43
	Too many truths at the marketplace	46
	Truths at war	49
	The fooled brain and its manipulated holders	55
	Tinkering with the truth	62
	Illusion of vision vs. illusion of truth	67
	Extreme brains, Luciano Pavarotti, and shooting sprees	70
	Illusions of truth abused	77
	The tyranny of the 'international community'	81
	Forget Joan of Arc	85
	Illusion factory and its machinery	91
	'The' truth: No one's monopoly	93
Chapter 3	Illusion of God	97
	Belief in God: Another popular illusion	100
	Too many gods to worship	102
	Too many Creators to believe in any	105
	More illusions: Supernatural phenomena	107
	Matters of faith as fresh taboos (The Slovakian case)	111
	The Great Code	115
	In the hands of God	119
	Pre-packaged existence: Genes and the Ten Commandments	121
Chapter 4	Illusion of the Soul	127
	Difficulties with the soul	128
	In God's shoes: Petri dish humanity	130
Chapter 5	Materiality of Consciousness	135
	Issues and arguments	137
	Tips for the bored mind	142
	The Creator's pet dethroned	145
	The voice of the evolutionary psychology	150
	Descending to the basement of human consciousness	153
	Finally some answers	158
	A machine to match humans	161
	Computers vs. people	163
	'Other minds' and the problems of access	165
	Doomed to materialism	167
	Not creatures of chance	168
	The eternal call	170
	The parable of very beautiful Isabel and Kuko the Rhino	174
Chapter 6	Of Human Bondage: Reward Function	177
	Drugs, our daily bread	180
	Drug lusts	183
	Are you a fitness junkie?	185
	Enjoy your addictions	187
	Welcome to the millennium of portable happiness!	191
Chapter 7	Illusion of Free Will	195
	Feel free to choose your chewing gum	197
	Free will: A marketing survey	202
	On free will and reward function	204
	A time for postmodern heresies	205
	What the future holds: A window of action	208
	Quo vadis, free will?	210
	A few questions in bad taste	213
	References	216
	About the book	219