Jonah Lehrer quotes - page 2

The story of the brain's separation from the body begin with Rene Descartes. The most influential philosopher of the seventeenth century, Descartes divided being into two distinct substances: a holy soul and a mortal carcass. The soul was the source of reason, science, and everything nice. Our flesh, on the other hand, was "clock-like," just a machine that bleeds. With this schism, Descartes condemned the body to a life of subservience, a power plant for the brain's light bulbs. (Jonah Lehrer)
We feel like more than just the sum of a trillion neurons. We feel like more than just three pounds of wet flesh, and so simply describing the brain in terms of its neurotransmitters and neurons and all these chemicals and exciting ingredients doesn't fully grapple with what it feels like to be human, the first person subjective experience of being a conscious being. When you think about the really grand epic questions of neuroscience ... what is consciousness? How can we form a scientific explanation for consciousness, for human experience? That is the holy grail. View quote
Jonah Lehrer
After all, we're a brain embedded in this larger set of structures. You can call it culture, call it society, call it your family, call it your friend, call it whatever it is. It's the stuff that makes people sign onto their Facebook a thousand times a day. It's the reason Twitter exists. We have got all these systems now that really make us fully aware of just how important social interactions are to what it is to be human. The question is, how can we study that? Because that, in essence, is a huge part of what's actually driving these enzymatic pathways in your brain. What's triggering these synaptic transmissions and these squirts of neurotransmitter back and forth is thoughts of other people, what other people say to us, interacting with the world at large. View quote
Jonah Lehrer
The one reality science cannot reduce is the only reality we will ever know. View quote
Jonah Lehrer
Just because an idea is true doesn't mean it can be proved. And just because an idea can be proved doesn't mean it's true. View quote
Jonah Lehrer
A lie told well is just as good as the truth. View quote
Jonah Lehrer
By the age of 3, children from wealthier households hear, on average, about 500,000 encouragements and 80,000 discouragements. The ratio is reversed in households on welfare. View quote
Jonah Lehrer
Cities force us to interact with strangers and with the strange. They pry the mind open. And that is why they are the idea that has unleashed so many of our new ideas. View quote
Jonah Lehrer
Design is the conscious imposition of meaningful order. View quote
Jonah Lehrer
Creativity is a catchall term for a variety of distinct thought processes. View quote
Jonah Lehrer
And so we keep on thinking, because the next thought might be the answer. (Jonah Lehrer)
It is ironic but true: the one reality science cannot reduce is the only reality we will ever know. This is why we need art. By expressing our actual experience, the artist reminds us that our science is incomplete, that no map of matter will ever explain the immateriality of our consciousness. View quote
Jonah Lehrer