The Role of Nervous Systems

Neuroscience is great. It is great at looking at nervous systems, elucidating their structure and function, as nerves and such. But translating these findings into meaningful statements about people is more difficult, and here neuroscience is unfortunately in thrall to a psychology which is littered with concepts which confuse and obscure.

A particularly pernicious notion that has underpinned high level interpretation of nervous system function is that of control. By equating individual persons with individual nervous systems, it has seemed that control must reside within nervous systems if we are to retain a sense of autonomy. The notion of control enforces an artificial separation of individual and environment.

A new view is emerging. Nervous systems, embedded in bodies, immersed in information-rich environments, bring forth phenomenal worlds.