Shirow's definition of a ghost and its relation to humanity
Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2010 7:41 am
The thrust of this thread is - what is really meant by a 'ghost'? I've done a very little background reading on different concepts of what makes humans human and where Shirow's thinking lies in the canon of this philosophy, and I've identified some different threads of thought. One is the classic Descartes definition of a physical body and intangible mind, separate from the physical construction of brain, nerves, blood etc. My immediate reaction would be that Shirow's thinking would be here, since the ghost seems to be something separate from the body. To be sure, there is a part of the brain that needs to communicate with the ghost (I may be wrong on this but it was my understanding, I can't remember where I picked it up, that 97% of the human brain could be replaced without damaging that person's connection to their ghost, hence the 3% that is required for connection) but it does not seem that the ghost is actually contained in that part of the brain. It seems intangible, outside the realms of neuroscience entirely-very much like the soul in religious thinking. And yet some internet sources claim that Shirow largely rejects Descartes' thinking. Here is what the wikipedia article on GITS philosophy says:
The concept of the ghost was borrowed by Masamune Shirow from an essay on structuralism, "The Ghost in the Machine" by Arthur Koestler. The title The Ghost in the Machine itself was originally used by an English philosopher, Gilbert Ryle to mock the paradox of conventional Cartesian dualism and Dualism in general. Koestler, like Ryle, denies Cartesian dualism and locates the origin of human mind in the physical condition of the brain. He argues that the human brain has grown and built upon earlier, more primitive brain structures, the "ghost in the machine", which at times overpower higher logical functions, and are responsible for hate, anger and other such destructive impulses.
The next part of the paragraph is where I get lost and where I am looking for help!
Shirow denies dualism similarly in his work, but defines the "ghost" more broadly, not only as a physical trait, but as a phase or phenomenon that appears in a system at a certain level of complexity. The brain itself is only part of the whole neural network; if, for example, an organ is removed from a body, the autonomic nerve of the organ and consequently its "ghost" will vanish unless the stimulus of the existence of the organ is perfectly re-produced by a mechanical substitution. This can be compared, by analogy, to a person born with innate deafness being unable to understand the concept of "hearing" unless taught.
The concept of the ghost was borrowed by Masamune Shirow from an essay on structuralism, "The Ghost in the Machine" by Arthur Koestler. The title The Ghost in the Machine itself was originally used by an English philosopher, Gilbert Ryle to mock the paradox of conventional Cartesian dualism and Dualism in general. Koestler, like Ryle, denies Cartesian dualism and locates the origin of human mind in the physical condition of the brain. He argues that the human brain has grown and built upon earlier, more primitive brain structures, the "ghost in the machine", which at times overpower higher logical functions, and are responsible for hate, anger and other such destructive impulses.
The next part of the paragraph is where I get lost and where I am looking for help!
Shirow denies dualism similarly in his work, but defines the "ghost" more broadly, not only as a physical trait, but as a phase or phenomenon that appears in a system at a certain level of complexity. The brain itself is only part of the whole neural network; if, for example, an organ is removed from a body, the autonomic nerve of the organ and consequently its "ghost" will vanish unless the stimulus of the existence of the organ is perfectly re-produced by a mechanical substitution. This can be compared, by analogy, to a person born with innate deafness being unable to understand the concept of "hearing" unless taught.