brain

The brain contains something over 10¹¹ neurons, each connected to something over three thousand others; this makes something over 10¹⁴ connections. If each connection is capable of ten different ‘weights’ or levels of activation, then the number of distinct brain states possible is 10 to the power of 10 ¹⁴. By comparison, the number of elementary particles in the universe is estimated at a miserly 10⁸⁷. The progress of neuroscience in understanding brain function increases the urgency of reconciling the scientific view of a person as a conglomerate of connected cells, with the personal view of a unified, conscious, single self subject to experiences and capable of rational and voluntary action. If this reconciliation cannot be managed, then either the scientific view drives out the personal view (see eliminativism ), or we end with some kind of dualism whereby the mental is different from and additional to the physical. Reconciling approaches include functionalism and physicalism, both hoping to show how mental explanation of events is a consistent supplement to their physical explanation, not a rival to it.