First Reading - Postulation and Placement: Finding the "Mind" in the Brain

A Circle round divided in four parts

Hath been great Study 'mongst the men of Arts; 

Since Archimed's or Euclid's time, each Brain 

Hath on a Line been stretched, yet all in Vain; 

And every Thought hath been a Figure set,

Doubts Cyphers were, Hopes as Triangles met; 

There was Division and Subtraction made, 

And Lines drawn out, and Points exactly laid, 

But none hath yet by Demonstration found

The way, by which to Square a Circle round:

For while the Brain is round, no Square will be, 

While Thoughts divide, no Figures will agree.

And others did upon the same account,

  Doubling the Cube to a great number mount;

But some the Triangles did cut so small, 

Till into equal Atoms they did fall:

For such is Man's curiosity and mind,

To seek for that, which is hardest to find.

~Margaret Cavendish's The Circle of the Brain cannot be Squared

What else am "I"? I will use my imagination. "I" am not that structure of limbs which is called a human body. "I" am not even some thin vapour which permeates the limbs- a wind, fire, air, breath, or whatever I depict in my imagination; for these are things which I have supposed to be nothing. Let this supposition stand; for all that I am still something. And yet may it not perhaps be the case that these very things which I am supposing to be nothing, because they are unknown to me, are in reality identical with the "I" of which I am aware? ~Descartes' Mind as Consciousness pg 22

 Bonnet concluded that it implied that body and soul could not be two distinct and separate substances but that animate beings constituted what he called an ‘être mixte’ (6). Julien Offray de La Mettrie also seized on this implication in his mid-century works, l’Homme Machine  (1747) and Traité de l’âme  (1751) (see Smith, 2002a). He concluded, like Bonnet, that the division of creation into two parts – body and soul – was absurd. Both, he writes, were created together, at the same instant, as if ‘by a single brush stroke’ (de La Mettrie, 1745, p. 2). To think otherwise was nothing more than a casuistry designed to throw dust into the eyes of the watching theologians (6). But this sort of panpsychism has, of course, tricky implications. Does all matter have this ‘dual aspect’? Leibniz, at least, recognised this implication and was content to allow his fundamental units – the monads – to possess both attributes. ~C.U.M. Smith's Brain & Mind in the 'Long' 18th Century pg 20

       The 18th century is a point of many important happenings of science and the arts. Smith discusses that the 18th century should not be limited by dates arbitrarily picked but organized by the start and finish of an era in varying realms of knowledge. He sights many examples of possible 18th centuries based on varying criteria and paradigms, but his main focus is on that of the mind and the "soul" or "spirit". First it discusses the nerve chords of the body and the question of them being hallow. Then it moves on to the idea of the location of the "animal spirit" and the debate of the separation or inclusion from or with, respectively, the body. Along with this was the idea of perceptions of the mind through irritability and sensibility. Finally the piece covered the thoughts on Electricity and its transmission throughout the nervous system.

      Although the history accounted by Smith is brief but wide in scope, I wanted to focus on one topic in particular. This manifests itself into one question: Where are our personalities located? This is a fundamental question of life. It is one that we have tried to solve for many years and some have tried but ultimately failed. Descartes talks about the personality (or soul) being separate from the body but in order for it to exist as an individual it must have an ability, in this case it is to think, in order to be able to actively participate in the surrounding world.

The internet is the 21st century's philosophical salon.

But even Descartes didn't know how to describe the physical entity of the personality let alone tell where it originated. He could only tell that there was an abstract thing called the soul or spirit and he said that it was of another substance than the body, which included the brain. We all know, through modern science, that the brain is not a spiritual vessel but it contains areas for controlling actions and processes. 

         Cavendish's poem makes a comment on the study of the brain throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. She tells of the study to "square the circle" or in other words to define the brain and its parts clearly.

Not to be confused with the Pythagorean Variety

It tells of how we try to reason, "every Thought hath been a Figure set" and map, "And Lines drawn out, and Points exactly laid" the brain in order to more fully understand its inner workings. However, it concludes with our failure, "But none hath yet by Demonstration found The way, by which to Square a Circle round" and while it may have been a dead end during the 17th and 18th centuries, today it is helps us formulate new ways to "Square the Circle". While new technologies allow us to delve further into the personality, the question of location is left in the realm of poets, philosophers, and students alike. 

What if indeed...