304 Self and the Phenomenon of Life
b2726 Self and the Phenomenon of Life: A Biologist Examines Life from Molecules to Humanity “9x6”be an experience, the content of which is distorted. Therefore, denying
the presence of mind yet accepting the experience of an illusion is self-
contradictory.^14
13.2.2 Mind is a bystander
The second school accepts the reality of mind as a subjective, first person
experience, but takes the causal relationship between body and mind as
a one-way street, that is, the body causes mind but mind does not cause
the body. In this view, the mind is a “supervenience” of the brain. What
this means is that mind is a bystander of brain activities and the brain’s
interaction with the world. It is like a sports spectator who participates in
the tension, anticipation, excitement, ecstasy and despondency of a ball
game, without himself ever causing the ball to roll. One subset of this
school is the so-called “property dualism,” which states that mind and
matter both exist but only matter (the brain) is of real substance. Mind
is just a “property” of matter, an epiphenomenon. The presence of mind
is therefore fortuitous — we are just lucky to have it and, with it, be able
to enjoy all the good things (or to suffer the pains) of life without having
to do the work (the body does it).^15
The main objection to this idea is that it does not make evolution-
ary sense. Mind is not only a biological phenomenon (a product of the
life process); it also has adaptive value. Having a mind is advantageous
in a competitive world, as the ability to foresee future events before
they actually happen enables an animal to better cope with the chal-
lenges in life. In the process of evolution, a trait that is profitable to a
species is “zealously” retained and one that diminishes its adaptability is
mercilessly eliminated. Those in the middle ground (neither good nor
bad) go through a phenomenon called “genetic drift,” in which a neutral
trait may appear or disappear randomly across evolutionary time. It cer-
tainly is not bad for animals to have minds. But if it were not essential
for survival, it would not have staying power over eons of biological evo-
lution. And for mind to be useful for survival, it has to be able to act on