2002 Reports

Hadrian's stylus

Arikha, Noga

Let us start off with two claims: a) despite the indubitable dependence of the mind on
the brain, attempts to account for higher consciousness in physical terms seem to be
locked within a hall of mirrors; b) even if this state of affairs is indeed illusory, the
fact that the illusion holds indicates that its cause cannot go away. Some philosophers
have found good reason to disagree with these claims. Nevertheless, this is not the
place to unpack their conceptual content, nor to explain how they fit together, and for
the sake of what follows I ask you to take them as given.