June 25, 2012 12:25 PSP Book - 9in x 6in 04-Junichi-Takeno-c04
66 Human Consciousness and the Mind
Osaka says that metaconsciousness is the function that makes
humans truly human-like.
From the perspective of functionalism, a supersystem that
overviews a system is foreseen to exist at a higher level of the system.
During his experiments, brain scientist Wilder Penfield directly
touched the cerebral cortexes of patients with an electrode during
surgery to learn what phenomena would occur when such stimuli
were given. The experiments were performed for the purpose of
minimizing loss of brain functions due to unintended excision of part
of the brain in brain tumor resections. It is said that the patient does
not feel pain because there are no sensory cells in the brain.
Penfield asked the patient in the experiment, “Begin counting out
loud from the number 1.” When he stimulated a certain part of the
brain while the patient was counting, suddenly the patient could not
say the numbers any more. Another patient was said to have told the
doctor that he vividly remembered events from his childhood days
when a certain cortex was stimulated.
Now we will revert to the topic of self-consciousness. When a
patient told Penfield, “I am now being treated by you,” Penfield tried
to identify the location but he failed to do so.
As mentioned before, Descartes declared that only humans
possessed consciousness. This would mean that dogs and cats have
no consciousness functions.
Of the three levels of consciousness advocated by Osaka, I think
awareness, the intermediate level, may exist in dogs and cats, but it is
doubtful if these animals have self-consciousness. Cats chase rats by
orientation, and dogs chase and catch a ball tossed to it by humans.
These facts clearly show the existence of awareness in these animals.
Dogs and cats, however, do not seem to respond to their mirror
image very well. There is no evidence to show that they recognize
their images reflected in a mirror. It is, therefore, assumed that self-
awareness is not a function that exists in dogs and cats.
An inspection method is available for determining the existence
of a high-level cognitive function. It is a method to check if the self -
image reflected in a mirror is cognized or not, and it is known as the
mirror test as proposed by Gallup.
Will anthropoid apes that resemble humans pass the mirror test?
June 25, 2012 12:25 PSP Book - 9in x 6in 04-Junichi-Takeno-c04
More Knowledge about Consciousness and the Mind 67
There is evidence to believe that chimpanzees possess self-
awareness. A chimpanzee was given a mirror and an opportunity to
play with it for a sufficient length of time. Later, the chimpanzee was
surreptitiously marked with signs on its forehead with non-irritant
dyes. When once again given a mirror, the chimpanzee touched the
marks on its forehead while looking into the mirror. This indicates
that the chimpanzee cognized that the image reflected in the mirror
was an image of itself. The function to cognize one’s own mirror
image is self-awareness; so we can determine that chimpanzees
possess self-awareness.
Besides chimpanzees, there have been reports that dolphins,
Indian elephants, and magpies also pass the mirror test.
There is an interesting story about consciousness. It is an
observation about free will. What makes humans truly human is the
free will that humans possess. Everyone believes that he or she can
freely decide matters in any place and at any time. An unbelievable
fact was revealed in experiments.
The human subject in the experiment was instructed to bend
his fingers at any time he wished. The observer was tracing the
activity of the subject’s brain with an electroencephalograph (EEG).
The subject bent his fingers at a certain time T . The brain started
its activities, however, about 1 second earlier than time T . This is
interpreted as follows: Although the subject thought he made the
decision to bend his fingers and did so at time T , a preliminary
decision had already been made about 1 second earlier in the brain.
This famous experiment was conducted by H.H. Kornhuber (1976)
in Germany. Later, researchers, including Benjamin Libet, Professor
Emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF),
performed additional detailed experiments to verify Kornhuber’s
findings in the 1980s.
These experiments seem to lead to the conclusion that humans
do not have free will because the brain started to act before the
human noticed that he actually bent his fingers, and that the human
is never able to notice this preparatory work of the brain. Is it true
that humans really do not have free will?
This problem will be discussed in detail later in this book.
June 25, 2012 12:25 PSP Book - 9in x 6in 04-Junichi-Takeno-c04
68 Human Consciousness and the Mind
4.13 Summary and Observations
I would like to point out, in the first place, that the study of
consciousness and the mind has a long history extending from olden
times to the present day.
Nevertheless, the existence of consciousness is still described as
a subjective sensation and as such we cannot advance further.
I think it is generally accepted as an objective fact that
consciousness exists in the left hemisphere of the human brain. This
is supported by anatomical findings in that if the right hemisphere
of the brain is surgically excised, the consciousness function of the
patient is not critically affected, but if the left brain is removed the
consciousness function may be totally lost depending on the excised
areas.
There is no objective analysis of the effects of excision on the
consciousness of the subject. Only the subjective judgment of the
experimenter is relied on to evaluate the results of the experiments.
I do not agree, however, with the argument of behaviorists that
humans possess no consciousness. This is because I can feel that
I have consciousness. This feeling is, without a doubt, a subjective
sensation. I should note that this subjective feeling is not necessarily
irrelevant to physical processes.
In other words, if the feeling of being conscious passes through a
physical process, we can scrutinize the process from the perspective
of physical science.
It is also possible that the function of human consciousness is
unique to each individual. If these individually unique functions
of consciousness are based on physical processes, we can analyze
them scientifically. By comparing these individually unique physical
processes, we may find some typical and common physical features
among them.
Since phenomenologists seem to have arrived at a certain
common recognition about consciousness and the mind, we should
not doubt that someday we will be able to find an objective physical
process that describes the occurrence and action of consciousness
and the mind.
June 25, 2012 12:25 PSP Book - 9in x 6in 04-Junichi-Takeno-c04
Summary and Observations 69
What is certain at this time is that the existence of consciousness
and the mind is known only to oneself. With regard to others, we
only feel that they must also have their own consciousness and mind
like me.
Descartes insisted on the consciousness of the existence of the
self when he declared, “I think, therefore I am.” For us today,
however, it is totally unknown if Descartes possessed consciousness,
and what kind of conscious activities led him to say that he did.
Nevertheless, it is true that his discourses significantly affect our
conscious activities.
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