Abstract
During his lectures, von Foerster discusses the central nervous system from several perspectives, presented here in the following order: 1) anecdotal and historical material illustrating the perennial debate over the location of man’s consciousness—in other words, which bodily organ is responsible for the higher mental functions; 2) the evolution of the “internuncial” which links our sensory and motor systems; 3) the structure and function of the neuron, the nervous system’s basic component.
The brain alone is not responsible for mind, even though it is a necessary organ for its manifestation. Indeed, an isolated brain is a piece of biological nonsense as meaningless as an isolated individual.
-Sir Julian Huxley
The neuron: the aristocrat among structures of the body, with its giant arms stretched out like the tentacles of an octopus to the provinces on the frontier of the outside world, to watch for the constant ambushes of physical and chemical forces.
-Santiago Ramon Y Cajal
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References
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Segal, L. (2001). The Nervous System. In: The Dream of Reality. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0115-8_5
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