Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Carl SaganRead
My fundamental premise about the brain is that its workings - what we sometimes call "mind" - are a consequence of its anatomy and physiology, and nothing more.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The brain's functioning is determined solely by its physical structure and biological processes.
In this quote, Carl Sagan emphasizes the idea that the mind is not separate from the brain but is instead a direct result of the brain's anatomy and physiology. This perspective underscores the importance of biological science in understanding consciousness and cognitive processes, suggesting that our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors stem from the physical mechanisms of the brain.
Themes
BrainMindAnatomyPhysiologyScience
In practice
Example use cases
In a neuroscience lecture discussing the relationship between brain anatomy and behavior.
More from Carl Sagan
All quotes βIn more than one respect, the exploring of the Solar System and homesteading other worlds constitutes the beginning, much more than the end, of history.
Carl SaganRead
How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder?
Carl SaganRead
The hole in the ozone layer is a kind of skywriting. At first it seemed to spell out our continuing complacency before a witch's brew of deadly perils. But perhaps it really tells of a newfound talent to work together to protect the global environment.
Carl SaganRead
There is a reward structure in science that is very interesting: Our highest honors go to those who disprove the findings of the most revered among us. So Einstein is revered not just because he made so many fundamental contributions to science, but because he found an imperfection in the fundamental contribution of Isaac Newton.
Carl SaganRead
The simplest thought, like the concept of the number one, has an elaborate logical underpinning.
Carl SaganRead
Similar quotes
Only 20 percent of our longevity is genetically determined. The rest is what we do, how we live our lives and increasingly the molecules that we take. It's not the loss of our DNA that causes aging, it's the problems in reading the information, the epigenetic noise.
David Andrew SinclairRead
As human beings, we are vulnerable to confusing the unprecedented with the improbable. In our everyday experience, if something has never happened before, we are generally safe in assuming it is not going to happen in the future, but the exceptions can kill you and climate change is one of those exceptions.
Al GoreRead
The laws of physics ... seem to be the product of exceedingly ingenious design... The universe must have a purpose.
Paul DaviesRead
The scientific theorist is not to be envied. For Nature, or more precisely experiment, is an exorable and not very friendly judge of his work. It never says "yes" to a theory. In the most favorable cases it says "Maybe," and in the great majority of cases simply "No." If an experiment agrees with a theory it means for the latter "Maybe," and if it does not agree it means "No." Probably every theory will some day experience its "No" - most theories, soon after conception.
Albert EinsteinRead
Nature allows only experimental situations to occur which can be described within the framework of the formalism of quantum mechanics
Werner HeisenbergRead
The feeling of awed wonder that science can give us is one of the highest experiences of which the human psyche is capable. It is a deep aesthetic passion to rank with the finest that music and poetry can deliver. It is truly one of the things that make life worth living and it does so, if anything, more effectively if it convinces us that the time we have for living is quite finite.
Richard DawkinsRead