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            I have to disagree with part of Thursday’s class discussion and the overall analysis of Emily Dickinson’s poem.  I don’t like to think that Dickinson was saying that the brain constructs the world we live in.  This sort of assumption about her poem does not make any sense to me.  If the brain were responsible for constructing everything in the world, how then would we account for objects that most people perceive in the same manner?  I understand that there is certain amount of individual perception in everything we view; yet to say that the brain constructs everything seems to be a stretch.  In class discussion one person brought up the notion that Dickinson might have been trying to convey the message that the brain is able to conceive of everything ‘with ease’. I find this to be a much more accurate way to analyze Dickinson’swork. 

            As for determining whether I subscribe to Descartes’ mind/body dualism or Dickinson’s perceptions of the brain, I cannot say.  I do believe that behavior is the presentation of both the body and the emotions of the self. I don’t think that the mind and body are separate entities to the degree that Descartes claimed.  Yet, I am not convinced solely by Dickinson’s poem either.