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Essays tagged “V.S. Ramachandran”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Scott examines neurological theories explaining delusions like Capgras syndrome through Bayesian reasoning, arguing that damage to the right prefrontal cortex causes patients to ignore priors and base their beliefs solely on explanatory adequacy.
Scott recounts the case of Simon Browne, an 18th-century preacher who claimed to have lost his soul and consciousness after killing a robber in self-defense, yet continued to write and reason brilliantly, potentially representing a real-world philosophical zombie.
Scott explains Ramachandran's theory that anosognosia and split-brain confabulation reflect a left-brain 'apologist' and a right-brain 'revolutionary' whose balance governs our ability to change our minds.