The Secret of the Brain and the Mind: Responding to My Colleague Ueda Shizuteru

Abstract

With great interest, I have had the honor to read what my fellow member Ueda Shizuteru 上田閑照 discusses under the title “The Depth of the Heart” in Directions of Science (Vol. 1 No. 2 May 1996). The article is a summary and response to Professor Ueda’s and my own lectures, presented at the public symposium of the Science Council of Japan, which convened last year on July 1st in Kyōto, as well as a dialogue which we had with Kawai Hayao 河合隼雄. It is difficult to advance such profound discussions on a podium of a symposium, in front of an audience of more than 1000 people in a form intelligible to these listeners. When I claimed, for example, that “the mind is located in the brain, and that it is possible to approach it through neuroscience,” Professor Ueda responded that “quite the opposite, the brain is located in the mind.” However, it was difficult to have a detailed discussion about it on the spot and the exchange ended without any further chance to pursue the argument further. This is why I was truly delighted about having obtained the opportunity to hear the sequel of that debate in this opinion section. Just how profound this problem is was brought to the fore in the debate that occurred last year between the humanities and social sciences on the one hand, and the natural sciences on the other, when the “Special Committee on the Brain and the Mind” finalized its report (printed in Directions of Science, Vol. 1 No. 2). Professor Ueda’s editorial points out very well the essential point of difference between the reasoning of both parties, and I would like to take this opportunity to express my thoughts in reply.

Translated by Maria Römer, Ralf Müller, and Adam Loughnane.