Post by rollerk on Nov 14, 2017 17:14:42 GMT
Damasio's idea about the mind as it relates to body image is based on the Spinozian thought that "The human Mind does not perceive any external body as actually existing except through the ideas of the modification (affections) of its own body." (p.212).
The most fitting example he uses is vision. What out mind creates as images that we "see" through our eyes are NOT mirror images. These images are, rather, the result of how our eye interprets light as it is filtered into our eyes and in turn how our eye communicates that information to our brain. Our brain then creates these mental images based on the information it has received through the eye. It can be said then, that what we "see" is not the object itself at all, but rather our brain's perception and interpretation of data. It is how the object has modified the eye that the brain perceives and "sees", not the object itself.
The evidence to support this idea is found in the purely biological processes that give way to the experience of feelings. The mental perceptions of the body state are the basis of the product of feelings. In the same way, it is the neural pathway and process that gives way to the "images, representations, or thoughts of our parts of our own body...".
The most fitting example he uses is vision. What out mind creates as images that we "see" through our eyes are NOT mirror images. These images are, rather, the result of how our eye interprets light as it is filtered into our eyes and in turn how our eye communicates that information to our brain. Our brain then creates these mental images based on the information it has received through the eye. It can be said then, that what we "see" is not the object itself at all, but rather our brain's perception and interpretation of data. It is how the object has modified the eye that the brain perceives and "sees", not the object itself.
The evidence to support this idea is found in the purely biological processes that give way to the experience of feelings. The mental perceptions of the body state are the basis of the product of feelings. In the same way, it is the neural pathway and process that gives way to the "images, representations, or thoughts of our parts of our own body...".
