[MD] Intellect's Symposium

[Krimel]

[Dave]
And this is not the end of it we have at least two conceptions based on
basic self/other split of the brain and how they work both separately, in
parallel and at different speeds. We normal think of conception as
associated with the left/language/reason side of the brain. But long before
it has even kick in the other side has evaluated the perception and decided
what it needed to do.

[Krimel]
The left brain has areas specifically devoted to encoding and decoding
language. Since language is how we express concept and turn them into
intellectual patterns the left hemisphere. But both hemispheres are active
in integrating sense data that is first filtered through the emotional
system. Our pre-intellectual assessments begin in the midbrain and are
elaborated, evaluated and extended in the cortex. The field of affective
science or the study of emotions began in earnest around 1970 and much of
that research suggests that emotions have their own rationality. They
evolved to keep us alive. Reason is a second order function that allows us
great extension in time. Reasons gives us access to the past and lets the
experience of the past inform our decisions in the present.

[Dave]
I finished (not necessarily understood) "Zen and the Brain" last month and
the complexities of how the brain works make one wonder how it works at all.

[Krimel]
Yes it is complicated and what we have at present is a kind of
impressionistic sketch of what is going on. Still it is refreshing to talk
to someone who at least recognizes that biology is relevant. I spent about
two years arguing just that point with people who think the mind has no real
relation to the body.