originally published 3/1/2000
In this Archive Feature from Volume 42 of the Journal, science journalist John Horgan, author of The Undiscovered Mind: How the Human Brain Defies Replication, Medication, and Explanation, discusses the limits of neuroscience. While it is fashionable to believe that technology and science will one day fathom — and control — all current human complexities, Horgan believes that this hope is unrealistic, that the proponents of these types of claims exaggerate their promise, and that this kind of thinking often falsely reduces human experience to mechanics. His research leads him to believe that while we may hope for practical advances in treating mental illness, for example, a globally unified “theory of the mind” is likely impossible. Horgan argues that “mind” is not reducible to “brain,” and that those who advance a purely materialistic notion of the human mind do so somewhat arrogantly, given the minimal progress in the field of neuroscience to date.
13 minutes
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