A global study was done years ago by the New Economics Foundation to find out the long pondered question, which country is the, "happiest". Costa Rica, surprisingly, is ranked first as the world's happiest country. Costa Rica ranks 71 in the World's richest countries so how can they be so, "happy," (Greenfield)? According to the New Economics Foundation, "Costa Ricans report the highest life satisfaction in the world and have the second-highest average life expectancy of the new world (second to Canada)" (Kristof). Despite the perfect climate, and laid back attitude and lifestyle, this phenomenon cannot be from solely daily dealings and experiences according to David Anderson in a recent TED Talk. Anderson explains to the audience how, "your brain is more than a bag of chemicals and how day to day interactions involve more than just simple releases of chemicals (Anderson). This reasoning brings up a massive debate in the world of biology and psychology being the mind vs. brain. According to Christina Sarich, "The mind vs. brain debate has been going on since before Aristotle. He and Plato argued that the soul housed intelligence or wisdom and that it could not be placed within the physical body." This theory has changed slightly to conform to modern times, and our understanding of neurochemistry, but the underlying concept still remains the same: is it a Brain or a Mind or some strange combination of the two?.
The Brain side of the argument argues that the brain is nothing more than a supercomputer filled with complicated neurons and chemicals and that there is no conscious thought. This can easily be backed up because it is physical. In an article titled "Is the Brain a Digital Computer?" by John R. Searle he dives into the heated debate on the Brain vs. Mind. He starts off by asking three basic questions.
"1. Is the brain a digital computer?.
