Plato's Cave: The Cartesian Theatre
The Cartesian Theatre Concept
The philosopher / mathematician Decartes proposed that the function of
the brain was to perform a sort of pre-processing on the sensory input
in order to project it on some kind of internal screen, where it could
be viewed by the "homunculus" (Latin: "little man"), who represents
the seat of the soul. Decartes even proposed a location for this
internal theatre, choosing the Pineal gland, because it was the only
structure he could find which was not duplicated left and right, but
sat right in the middle of the brain.
The Cartesian Theatre concept is alive and well, in diluted form, and
is manifest in all theories which propose that the function of the
sensory cortical areas is simply to pre-process the sensory
information, and pass it on to higher levels of the brain where
somebody else can figure out how consciousness occurs.
The principal objection to the Cartesian Theatre concept is that the
"homunculus" itself must have a brain in its little head, at the
center of which must be yet another homunculus, thus leading to an
infinite regress of observers within observers.
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