For as long as humans have been philosophizing about the mind, virtual

For as long as humans have been philosophizing about the mind, virtually every thinker has conceived of the mind as a unitary entity. In fact, such a view was crucial to both Aristotle’s and Descartes’s view that the mind (or the soul) survived death. Surely the self cannot be subdivided; surely one cannot have half a mind? Indeed, the final evidence that one can, in fact, have “half a mind” came in the 1960’s, from the famous studies for which Roger Sperry was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1981 for his discoveries about the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres. Working with epileptics who had been treated via the cutting of the corpus callosum, or division between the two hemispheres, Sperry was able to observe “odd behavior” in these patients—each half of the brain could gain new information, but one hemisphere was entirely unaware of what the other had learned or experienced.

Restak, in The Modular Brain, posits that the brain is not centrally organized (some prior theories of mind had actually posed the existence of a “director” in the brain, begging the question of who directs the director’s brain) but, alternately, that different parts of the brain control different abilities, and that those “modules” can operate independently. As we can easily see from patients with brain damage, there is no “unified mind and personality”—part of ourselves, centered in different parts of the brain, can change or be obliterated entirely as a result of physical changes to the brain. Consider the case of Phineas Gage, a rail worker who, in 1848, while attempting to compress explosive powder with a tamping rod, literally blew a hole in the front of his brain. While Gage was ultimately able to function fairly normally, his personality was markedly changed; he became boorish and irresponsible. Gage’s case was well documented, allowing modern reconstructions to show that his injury affected areas of the brain that we now know to be related to moral sensibilities and their expression. That is, Phineas Gage literally lost one (or more) of the modules in his modular brain system.

1. The case of Phineas Gage is presented as evidence that

(A) the modular brain system has a central “director”
(B) people who lose parts of the brain are usually able to function normally
(C) brain injury is a serious risk in certain types of work
(D) splitting the corpus callosum can result in marked changes in personality
(E) aspects of personality can be physically located within the brain


2. In lines (Highlighted), the phrase “begging the question of who directs the director’s brain” is meant to emphasize that

I. the problem of a “director” in the brain is recursive
II. whether there is such a “director” of the brain is an open question
III. Restak has both asked and answered a question about the brain’s organization

A. I Only
B. II Only
C. III Only
D. I and II Only
E. II and III Only


3. Which of the following can be inferred about thinkers who conceive of the mind as a unitary entity?

I. They believe that the mind survives death.
II. Their views are incompatible with modular brain theory.
III. They are unaware that certain aspects of personality are known to be controlled by certain areas of the brain.

A. I Only
B. II Only
C. III Only
D. I and II Only
E. II and III Only