Is the mind just a program run by the brain?

Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor thinks that much modern neuroscience can be characterized as a collection of weak metaphors about the mind and brain. The Computational Theory of Mind (CTM) is one of them:

I believe that the computational model of the mind is fatally flawed. Here are some reasons:

The most obvious reason is that all mental states have meaning — that is, they are intentional. Intentionality means that our thoughts are about something — there is always an object to which a thought points. I think about my vacation, or about politics or about my dog. But computation, understood as manipulation of symbols, is never intrinsically about anything. A computer matches a set of configurations of electrons to another set of configurations of electrons. What those configurations of electrons are about is not inherent to the computation — the meaning of this post as I type it is not inherently in the patterns of electrons on my screen but in the thoughts in my mind…

Michael Egnor, “Why “the mind is just a computation” is a fatally flawed idea” at Mind Matters News

Summary: The mind is the opposite of computation. Mental states are always intentional and computation, by its nature, is never intentional.

You may also enjoy: A reader asks, Is it true that there is no self? (Michael Egnor) The assertion that self is an illusion is not even wrong — it’s self-refuting, like saying “I don’t exist” or “Misery is green.”

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