The Way We Know - Physiologically

The physiological aspect of knowledge is the way that the brain provides the services that the mind understands as knowledge. Reference to the brain is intended to mean the physical structure of the organ of the body and in particular the neuron type cells that form an important part of this structure. The mind is intended to make reference to the thinking person, the thing that others communicate with. Probably, brain and mind are not separate things but our current lack of detailed understanding of the mind and brain means that it can be useful to use one of the two terms, depending on what aspect of a person is being discussed.

Neuro-science has shed quite a lot of light on the way the brain works, but there seems much more still left to do. If people really wish to understand how they work, I suspect that the amount of work left to do is very much greater than the work that has already been done. For instance, although explanations for the neurological nature of memory have been provided, this still leaves us short of a neurological explanation of knowledge involving truth, belief and justification. How are these concepts embodied in the brain?

Physiological developments also link to psychological concepts. For instance, when a person is asked to spontaneously generate an action, using their own free will to decide when to do this, it is possible to detect brain activity that precedes but yet leads to this so called act of free will. Free will is one of the major philosophical issues.

How are the commonly observed moods and motivations of people that form one of the social structures of our lives provided by the physiological structures of the brain? Hormonal chemicals may be largely responsible for moods and motivation but what triggers and controls their release, uptake and distribution?