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Of recent years certain neurologists have displayed an increased interest in questions of consciousness and philosophical problems of perception. Sir Russell Brain has found that neurology does not give answers to his questions and that the answers offered by philosophers do not altogether satisfy him. He has therefore had to philosophize for himself. In this Manson Lecture, here reprinted, he gives some excellent criticism of the classical neurological account of perception. He lays stress on the rôle of the body, and he thinks that the 'body-image' must play a fundamental part in the explanation, for instance, of localization of sensations and of our awareness of externality. He moves away from the old atomistic conception and regards patterns as basic; he regards states of mind as influenced by patterns of neural impulses.
This may show to what an extent Sir Russell Brain is trying to question common assumptions within neurology. When we come to the positive reconstruction that he attempts to make, however, the result is rather thin, and it is not at all clear what precisely is the theory of perception he is putting forward. His answer to the question, for instance, how the nervous system can yield information about the external world is that the nervous system provides symbolic representation, i.e. provides symbols both for external objects, and for relations between them, and also for relations between them and the body. The concept of symbolic representation would require a great deal of elaboration before we could judge whether it could carry such a load. None the less, whatever the deficiencies of the theory, it is useful to know how an eminent neurologist views such matters. Provided solutions are not expected, parts of the book should be widely read for the very stimulating things they contain.