意识，大脑，或者两者都是？
大多数现代研究者使用"意识"这个单词作为"大脑"的同义词，似乎在人类头盖骨下面的物理器官是唯一思考的工具。如果没有人关注，这个看法很容易意味着，一个困扰了最伟大思想者上千年的问题——-意识和身体物质之间的关系——以某种方式被解决了。这不是最终答案，那些为此奉献了一生时间人需要更好的答案。
神经科学家对于大脑的认知和思维活动提供了一些有价值的看法。有资料表明，左半脑主要应对语言处理细节，和分析、逻辑思考相关，右半脑主要处理感官图像，和直觉和创造性思维相关，位于大脑半球之间的一小束神经——胼胝体——整合了各种功能。
产生这些认知的研究表明，大脑对于思考是必须的，但是并没有表明大脑对于思考是充分足够的。事实上，很多哲学家声称这永远不能成为充分条件。他们认为意识和大脑有着明显的区别。大脑是由物质组成的物理实体，易于腐烂，而意识是抽象的东西。在最强大的显微镜下观测大脑细胞你永远也无法看到想法和概念——例如，美丽，政府，公平，或者爱——因为想法和概念不是物质实体，而且没有物理上的维度。那么，这些非物质的东西在哪里呢？在非物质的意识中。
美国已故哲学家威廉·巴雷特（William Barrett）指出“从根本上说，历史是人类意识的经历”以及“人类最本质的历史是思想史”。在他的观点看来，“现代社会最大的讽刺”是这样一个事实——科学，存在于人类的意识当中，却鲁莽到否认意识到存在。就像他这样评价，“后代否认他的父母存在。”
就意识是否是实体的争论并不是数个世纪以来关于意识激烈讨论的唯一话题，一个特别重要的问题是，意识是否是被动的，就如约翰·洛克（JohnLocke）所持有的观点，在空白的石板上由经验书写，还是就如G.W.莱布尼茨（G.W.Leibnitz）所说，意识是主动的，是我们采取主动，行使我们自由意志的工具。这本书基于后者的观点。
原文：
Mind, Brain, or Both?
Most modern researchers use the word mind synonymously with brain, as if the physical organ that resides in the human skull were solely responsible for thinking. This practice conveniently presupposes that a problem that has challenged the greatest thinkers for millennia—the relationship between mind and physical matter—was somehow solved when no one was looking. The problem itself and the individuals who spent their lives wrestling with it deserve better.
Neuroscience has provided a number of valuable insights into the cognitive or thinking activities of the brain. It has documented that the left hemisphere of the brain deals mainly with detailed language processing and is associated with analysis and logical thinking, that the right hemisphere deals mainly with sensory images and is associated with intuition and creative thinking, and that the small bundle of nerves that lies between the hemispheres—the corpus callosum—integrates the various functions.
The research that produced these insights showed that the brain is necessary for thought, but it has not shown that the brain is sufficient for thought. In fact, many philosophers claim it can never show that. They argue that the mind and the brain are demonstrably different. Whereas the brain is a physical entity composed of matter and therefore subject to decay, the mind is a metaphysical entity. Examine brain cells under the most powerful microscope and you will never see an idea or concept— for example, beauty, government, equality, or love—because ideas and concepts are not material entities and so have no physical dimension. Where, then, do these nonmaterial things reside? In the nonmaterial mind.5
The late American philosopher William Barrett observed that “history is, fundamentally, the adventure of human consciousness” and “the fundamental history of humankind is the history of mind.” In his view, “one of the supreme ironies of modern history” is the fact that science, which owes its very existence to the human mind, has had the audacity to deny the reality of the mind. As he put it, “the offspring denies the parent.”6
The argument over whether the mind is a reality is not the only issue about the mind that has been hotly debated over the centuries. One especially important issue is whether the mind is passive, a blank slate on which experience writes, as John Locke held, or active, a vehicle by which we take the initiative and exercise our free will, as G. W. Leibnitz argued. This book is based on the latter view.
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