ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the many theories of how the mind emerges from the action of the nervous system and its components, especially the brain. It argues that the mind–brain relationship is likely to be among the most thoroughly intractable of all. For the moment, the issue of the practical nature of complexity is raised as a reminder that it is an impenetrable obstacle to solving some much less complex problems than understanding how mind emerges from brain. E. Krausz, for one, believed that science, especially social science, is limited because it can never achieve the necessary “objectivity.” N. Rescher, on the other hand, argued that there are some questions that are invalid, mainly because of the assumptions that they incorporate into their logic. Although the popular media regularly distorts the thoughts of contemporary cognitive neuroscientists, sometimes a useful service is performed by allowing them (the scientists) to speak in their own words in the public record.
