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Very few people would propose that there actually is a
little man in the brain looking at brain activity.
However, this proposal has been used as a 'straw man' in
theories of mind. Gilbert Ryle (1949) proposed that the
human mind is known by its intelligent acts. (see Ryle's
Regress). He argued that if there is an inner being
inside the brain that could steer its own thoughts then
this would lead to an absurd repetitive cycle or
"regress" before a thought could occur:
"According to the legend, whenever an agent does
anything intelligently, his act is preceded and steered
by another internal act of considering a regulative
proposition appropriate to his practical problem. . . .
Must we then say that for the agent's . . . reflections
how to act to be intelligent he must first reflect how
best to reflect how to act? The endlessness of this
implied regress shows that the application of the
appropriateness does not entail the occurrence of a
process of considering this criterion." Ryle 1949.
Ryle's theory is that intelligent acts cannot be a
property of an inner being or mind, if such a thing were
to exist.
The homunculus argument and the regress argument are
often considered to be the same but this is not the
case. The homunculus argument says that if there is a
need for a 'little man' to complete a theory then the
theory is false or incomplete. The regress argument says
that an intelligent agent would need to think before it
could have a thought.
Homunculus - Early literary
representations
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