The Mind

In the study of the mind, there is a popular distinction between the ‘hard problem’ (how and why we have experiences or qualia) and ‘easy problems’ (perception, memory, sensory-motor control, etc.). However, even easy problems do not seem to be fully understood with the methodology that psychology and neuroscience use at present. As Patricia Churchland (herself holding strictly materialistic views) puts it:

“It is important to acknowledge that for none of the so-called “easy” problems, do we have an understanding of their solution… It is just false that we have anything approximating a comprehensive theory of sensorimotor control or attention or short-term memory or long-term memory. Consider one example. My signature is recognizably mine whether signed with the dominant or nondominant hand, with the foot, with the mouth, with the pen strapped to my shoulder, or written in half-inch script or in 2-ft. graffiti. How is “my signature” represented in the nervous system? How can completely different muscle sets be invoked to do the task, even when the skill was not acquired using those muscles? We still do not understand the general nature of sensorimotor representation. (1998, p.112)”