Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T13:59:28.424Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Is feeling pain just mindreading? Our mind-brain constructs realistic knowledge of ourselves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2009

Bernard J. Baars
Affiliation:
The Neurosciences Institute, San Diego, CA [email protected]://bernardbaars.pbwiki.com

Abstract

Carruthers claims that “our knowledge of our own attitudes results from turning our mindreading capacities upon ourselves” (target article, Abstract). This may be true in many cases. But like other constructivist claims, it fails to explain occasions when constructed knowledge is accurate, like a well-supported scientific theory. People can know their surrounding world and to some extent themselves. Accurate self-knowledge is firmly established for both somatosensory and social pain.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baars, B. J. (2005) Subjective experience is probably not limited to humans: The evidence from neurobiology and behavior. Consciousness and Cognition 14:721.Google Scholar
Baars, B. J. & Gage, N. M., eds. (2007) Cognition, brain and consciousness: An introduction to cognitive neuroscience. Elsevier/Academic Press.Google Scholar
Eisenberger, N. I. & Lieberman, M. D. (2004). Why rejection hurts: A common neural alarm system for physical and social pain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8(7):294300.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nelson, E. E. & Panksepp, J. (1998) Brain substrates of infant–mother attachment: Contributions of opioids, oxytocin, and norepinephrine. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 22(3):437–52.Google Scholar