The Hardening of Consciousness
&gt; Manzotti: However, the essential underlying idea here is simply that <i>neurons produce consciousness.</i> It’s as crude as that. We are simply asking the brain to do what the soul once did. Of course, what neuroscience has actually shown is how neurons consume chemicals, absorb other chemicals and release them, produce and fire off electrical charges, and so on. In many situations such activities occur in strict relation to certain experiences we have. But then, so do the activities of many other cells in the body. And so do the external things we experience.<p>This strikes me as disingenuous. Consciousness is correlated strongly and solely with the brain. Meaning, if you cut off my hand I can still think and feel and reason. If you remove a fist-sized volume of tissue from my pre-frontal cortex I&#x27;ll never have another thought again.<p>I guess I&#x27;m missing the point Manzotti is driving at. Experience is something that needs to be accounted for. I can deny many things but I can&#x27;t deny that I&#x27;m experiencing some thoughts and feelings and sense perceptions right now. Even if the self and experience is illusory there must be something causing that illusion to exist. If consciousness exists in this universe then it must be explained by the laws and constants of this universe. If it&#x27;s not <i>neurons that produce consciousness</i> then there must be some other physical phenomena that generates experience.