Reading Notes: April 29th, 2022

“In 1967 there was a monkey in my supervisory Larry Weiskrantz’s laboratory at Cambridge, named Helen, who had undergone a surgical operation to remove the primary visual cortex, VI, at the back of her brain, with the purpose of discovering more about the role this area of the cortex plays in normal vision. The operation had been done in 1965, and during the two years that followed the monkey had seemed to be almost completely blind, capable of discriminating little more than light from dark. However, I had reasons for thinking this might not be the whole story. As part of my own PhD research I had been studying the visual-responses of single cells in the superior colliculus of monkeys, and found evidence that this “primitive” subcortical visual system, which remains intact after removal of the visual cortex, might be capable on its own of supporting quite finely-tuned visually guided behavior. I wondered now whether in Helen’s case this secondary visual system could somehow be brought into action. Thus, one week when I had time on my hands and the monkey was not involved in Weiskrantz’s research, I decided to find out more. Over several days I sat by Helen’s cage and played with her. To my delight it soon became clear that this blind monkey was sometimes watching what I did. For example, I would hold up a piece of apple and wave it in front of her, and she would clearly look, before reaching out to try to get it from me. As the game continued, she soon changed from being a monkey who sat around listlessly, gazing blankly into the distance, to one who had become interested and involved in vision again….Helen was killed in 1974 so that her brain could be examined and the extent of the lesion confirmed. To be sentimental about her would be inappropriate. Nonetheless, I think we should acknowledge our debt as scientists and philosophers to a creature who, through a human experiment that deprived her of visual consciousness, has taught us so much about what consciousness is all about.” (Humphrey, “Helen: A Blind Monkey Who Saw Everything,” in The Oxford Companion to Consciousness, 343-344) [Underlining is my own]

Once self-reflection vanishes, vility, naïvety, and ignorance fill the void.

“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34-38) 

“If we examine a flower, for example, our understanding notes its particular qualities; chemistry dismembers and analyzes it. In this way, we separate color, shape of the leaves, citric acid, etheric oil, carbon, hydrogen, etc.; and now we say that the plant consists of all these parts. “If you want to describe life and gather its meaning, To drive out its spirit must be your beginning, Then though fast in your hand lie the parts one by one / The spirit that linked them, alas is gone / And “Nature’s Laboratory” is only a name / That the chemist bestows on’t to hide his own shame” as Goethe says.” (Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of Nature, §246)