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Top 25 Michael S. Gazzaniga Quotes (2025 Update)

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “Possessing a theory of mind means that an individual ascribes mental states, such as purpose, intention, knowledge, beliefs, doubts, pretending, liking, and so forth, to himself and to others.”

1. “Possessing a theory of mind means that an individual ascribes mental states, such as purpose, intention, knowledge, beliefs, doubts, pretending, liking, and so forth, to himself and to others.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “The brain has millions of local processors making important decisions. It is a highly specialized system with critical networks distributed throughout the 1,300 grams of tissue. There is no one boss in the brain. You are certainly not the boss of the brain. Have you ever succeeded in telling your brain to shut up already and go to sleep?”

2. “The brain has millions of local processors making important decisions. It is a highly specialized system with critical networks distributed throughout the 1,300 grams of tissue. There is no one boss in the brain. You are certainly not the boss of the brain. Have you ever succeeded in telling your brain to shut up already and go to sleep?”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “When communication between the hemispheres is lost, each is unaware of the other’s knowledge and each functions independently based on the information it receives. Both sides of the brain try to complete the task independently, resulting in the tug-of-war. By this simple task, the illusion of a unified consciousness is exposed. Clearly, if consciousness arose from a single location, then a split-brain patient would be unable to have two simultaneous experiences!”

3. “When communication between the hemispheres is lost, each is unaware of the other’s knowledge and each functions independently based on the information it receives. Both sides of the brain try to complete the task independently, resulting in the tug-of-war. By this simple task, the illusion of a unified consciousness is exposed. Clearly, if consciousness arose from a single location, then a split-brain patient would be unable to have two simultaneous experiences!”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “Robert Sapolsky, professor of neurology at Stanford, makes the extremely strong statement: “It’s boggling that the legal system’s gold standard for an insanity defense – M’Naghten – is based on 166-year-old science. Our growing knowledge about the brain makes notions of volition, culpability, and, ultimately, the very premise of a criminal justice system, deeply suspect.”

4. “Robert Sapolsky, professor of neurology at Stanford, makes the extremely strong statement: “It’s boggling that the legal system’s gold standard for an insanity defense – M’Naghten – is based on 166-year-old science. Our growing knowledge about the brain makes notions of volition, culpability, and, ultimately, the very premise of a criminal justice system, deeply suspect.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “My mind takes flight like a butterfly. There is so much to do. You can wander off in space or in time, set out for Tierra del Fuego or for King Midas’s court. You can visit the woman you love, slide down beside her and stroke her still-sleeping face. You can build castles in Spain, steal the Golden Fleece, discover Atlantis, realize your childhood dreams and adult ambitions.”

5. “My mind takes flight like a butterfly. There is so much to do. You can wander off in space or in time, set out for Tierra del Fuego or for King Midas’s court. You can visit the woman you love, slide down beside her and stroke her still-sleeping face. You can build castles in Spain, steal the Golden Fleece, discover Atlantis, realize your childhood dreams and adult ambitions.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “I believe that things just happen in life, and pretty much after the fact, we make up a story to make it all seem rational. We all like simple stories that suggest a causal chain to life’s events. Yet randomness is ever present.”

6. “I believe that things just happen in life, and pretty much after the fact, we make up a story to make it all seem rational. We all like simple stories that suggest a causal chain to life’s events. Yet randomness is ever present.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “This incessant interplay between cognition and feelings, which is to say between cortical and subcortical modules, produces what we call consciousness.”

7. “This incessant interplay between cognition and feelings, which is to say between cortical and subcortical modules, produces what we call consciousness.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “Time and time again, as we will see, the brilliant forebears of modern neuroscience abandoned their fierce reasoning skills and, deus ex machina, threw in a spook at the end of their analysis.”

8. “Time and time again, as we will see, the brilliant forebears of modern neuroscience abandoned their fierce reasoning skills and, deus ex machina, threw in a spook at the end of their analysis.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “At the end of the visit Steve asked, “What percent of the work is exciting?” After thinking for a moment, I replied, “Oh about ten percent. The rest is routine.” As I have learned in life, 10 percent is a good number for most professions. I know it has been enough to keep me going to work every day with a smile on my face.”

9. “At the end of the visit Steve asked, “What percent of the work is exciting?” After thinking for a moment, I replied, “Oh about ten percent. The rest is routine.” As I have learned in life, 10 percent is a good number for most professions. I know it has been enough to keep me going to work every day with a smile on my face.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “Reductionism in the physical sciences has been challenged by the principle of emergence. The whole system acquires qualitatively new properties that cannot be predicted from the simple addition of those of its individual components. One might apply the aphorism that the new system is greater than the sum of its parts. There is a phase shift, a change in the organizational structure, going from one scale to the next.”

10. “Reductionism in the physical sciences has been challenged by the principle of emergence. The whole system acquires qualitatively new properties that cannot be predicted from the simple addition of those of its individual components. One might apply the aphorism that the new system is greater than the sum of its parts. There is a phase shift, a change in the organizational structure, going from one scale to the next.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “While the list of chimp tricks is long and dazzling, does this make them conscious beings in the same sense that humans are conscious? This is probably an ill-posed question. Perhaps the question should be “Does our conscious experience hold similar contents to that of a chimp?”

11. “While the list of chimp tricks is long and dazzling, does this make them conscious beings in the same sense that humans are conscious? This is probably an ill-posed question. Perhaps the question should be “Does our conscious experience hold similar contents to that of a chimp?”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “Science results from a profoundly social process. The common portrayal – that science emerges from a solitary isolated genius, always laboring alone, not owing anything to anyone – is simply wrong.”

12. “Science results from a profoundly social process. The common portrayal – that science emerges from a solitary isolated genius, always laboring alone, not owing anything to anyone – is simply wrong.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “I once asked Leon Festinger, one of the smartest men in the world, whether or not he ever felt inept. He replied, “Of course! That is what keeps you ept.”

13. “I once asked Leon Festinger, one of the smartest men in the world, whether or not he ever felt inept. He replied, “Of course! That is what keeps you ept.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “What exactly is the role of the cerebral cortex in producing consciousness? The cortex expands the number of ways in which we can experience the world, which allows for a vast variety of possible conscious experiences and responses.”

14. “What exactly is the role of the cerebral cortex in producing consciousness? The cortex expands the number of ways in which we can experience the world, which allows for a vast variety of possible conscious experiences and responses.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “So now we know that modular systems have many advantages, but how do they do it? How do thousands of independent localized modules work together to coordinate our thoughts and behaviors and, ultimately, produce our conscious experience?”

15. “So now we know that modular systems have many advantages, but how do they do it? How do thousands of independent localized modules work together to coordinate our thoughts and behaviors and, ultimately, produce our conscious experience?”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “Unfortunately, even though Thomas Nagel would love it, technology today does not permit us to truly understand how different organisms experience the world. Often it is even difficult for us to understand our own perception of the world. The best we can do to empirically understand the experience of others, both animals and people, is to use behavioral and brain-activity measurements.”

16. “Unfortunately, even though Thomas Nagel would love it, technology today does not permit us to truly understand how different organisms experience the world. Often it is even difficult for us to understand our own perception of the world. The best we can do to empirically understand the experience of others, both animals and people, is to use behavioral and brain-activity measurements.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “I am not suggesting that single cells are conscious. I am suggesting that they may have some type of processing that is necessary or similar to the processing that results in conscious experience.”

17. “I am not suggesting that single cells are conscious. I am suggesting that they may have some type of processing that is necessary or similar to the processing that results in conscious experience.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “The list is long, and we humans seem to have more instincts than other creatures.”

18. “The list is long, and we humans seem to have more instincts than other creatures.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “The similarity of architecture in organized, complex systems suggests that they all share universal requirements. They are designed to be “efficient, adaptive, evolvable, and robust.”

19. “The similarity of architecture in organized, complex systems suggests that they all share universal requirements. They are designed to be “efficient, adaptive, evolvable, and robust.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “Living matter seems to be playing an entirely different game than non-living matter, even though they are both made from the same stuff. Why is living matter different from non-living matter? Is it simply cheating, somehow violating the physical laws that we’ve come to understand govern non-living matter? Pattee argues that living matter is distinguished from non-living matter by its ability to replicate and to evolve over the course of time. So what does it take to replicate and evolve?”

20. “Living matter seems to be playing an entirely different game than non-living matter, even though they are both made from the same stuff. Why is living matter different from non-living matter? Is it simply cheating, somehow violating the physical laws that we’ve come to understand govern non-living matter? Pattee argues that living matter is distinguished from non-living matter by its ability to replicate and to evolve over the course of time. So what does it take to replicate and evolve?”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “John-Dylan Haynes22 and his colleagues expanded Libet’s experiments in 2008 to show that the outcomes of an inclination can be encoded in brain activity up to ten seconds before it enters awareness! The brain has acted before its person is conscious of it. Not only that, from looking at the scan, they can make a prediction about what the person is going to do. The implications of this are rather staggering.”

21. “John-Dylan Haynes22 and his colleagues expanded Libet’s experiments in 2008 to show that the outcomes of an inclination can be encoded in brain activity up to ten seconds before it enters awareness! The brain has acted before its person is conscious of it. Not only that, from looking at the scan, they can make a prediction about what the person is going to do. The implications of this are rather staggering.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “One of a line of self-declared motor chauvinists, he boasts a lineage that includes the Nobel laureates Sir Charles Sherrington, who wrote, “Life’s aim is an act, not a thought,” and Roger Sperry, who encouraged us “to view the brain objectively for what it is, namely, a mechanism for governing motor activity.”32 After all, it is action, not cogitation, that puts food on the table and a bun in the oven. Action allowed our ancestors to survive and reproduce.”

22. “One of a line of self-declared motor chauvinists, he boasts a lineage that includes the Nobel laureates Sir Charles Sherrington, who wrote, “Life’s aim is an act, not a thought,” and Roger Sperry, who encouraged us “to view the brain objectively for what it is, namely, a mechanism for governing motor activity.”32 After all, it is action, not cogitation, that puts food on the table and a bun in the oven. Action allowed our ancestors to survive and reproduce.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “After a tour of the wards, it begins to look like consciousness is not a system property at all. It is a property of local brain circuits.”

23. “After a tour of the wards, it begins to look like consciousness is not a system property at all. It is a property of local brain circuits.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “24 It is worthwhile to take a moment to understand the difference between a structural and a functional network. “Structure” refers simply to the physical anatomy of a network: how many neurons, how they are arranged, their shape, and so forth. A functional network performs a certain function; it may have to do with speaking language, or it may have to do with understanding language. Importantly, the structure of a network does not reveal its function, or vice versa.”

24. “24 It is worthwhile to take a moment to understand the difference between a structural and a functional network. “Structure” refers simply to the physical anatomy of a network: how many neurons, how they are arranged, their shape, and so forth. A functional network performs a certain function; it may have to do with speaking language, or it may have to do with understanding language. Importantly, the structure of a network does not reveal its function, or vice versa.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “Evolution by natural selection requires the copying of genetic records and the construction of proteins, but these processes themselves had to originate somehow.”

25. “Evolution by natural selection requires the copying of genetic records and the construction of proteins, but these processes themselves had to originate somehow.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “How on earth does lifeless matter become the building blocks for living things? How do neurons turn into minds? What should be the vocabulary used to describe the interactions between the brain and its mind? When humankind finds some answers, will we be disheartened by what they are? Will our future understanding of “consciousness” simply not be fulfilling? Will it be simple yet cold and harsh?”

26. “How on earth does lifeless matter become the building blocks for living things? How do neurons turn into minds? What should be the vocabulary used to describe the interactions between the brain and its mind? When humankind finds some answers, will we be disheartened by what they are? Will our future understanding of “consciousness” simply not be fulfilling? Will it be simple yet cold and harsh?”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “Plainly stated, I believe consciousness is an instinct.”

27. “Plainly stated, I believe consciousness is an instinct.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

Michael S. Gazzaniga Quote: “Marc Kirschner and his Berkeley colleague John Gerhart.20 They wondered whether modern creatures have cellular and developmental mechanisms with the characteristic of what is called evolvability. That is, do they have the ability to generate heritable phenotypic variation? And is the characteristic of evolvability itself under selection pressure? That is, will biological systems that produce more phenotypic variations that can be passed on to their offspring be more.”

28. “Marc Kirschner and his Berkeley colleague John Gerhart.20 They wondered whether modern creatures have cellular and developmental mechanisms with the characteristic of what is called evolvability. That is, do they have the ability to generate heritable phenotypic variation? And is the characteristic of evolvability itself under selection pressure? That is, will biological systems that produce more phenotypic variations that can be passed on to their offspring be more.”

— Michael S. Gazzaniga

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