Made the brain out to be?

Question

1) Does "made the brain out to be" mean "explained/postulated the brain to be"?
2) Does "the things" refer to "the sensory events"?

Context:

All the theories I knew made the brain out to be completely controlled by the things that were going on around it, by the sensory events that the brain was exposed to.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

SweetFreedom1) Does "made the brain out to be" mean "explained/postulated the brain to be"?2) Does "the things" refer to "the sensory events"?Context: All the theories I knew made the brain out to be completely controlled by the things that were going on around it, by the sensory events that the brain was exposed to.

Yes, I'd use such a wording instead of the original one: "All the theories I knew described/explained/understood the brain as being completely controlled by..."

SweetFreedom · Answer

Thanks.
The second question needs to be confirmed:

Does "the things" refer to "the sensory events"?

Anonymous · Answer

SweetFreedomDoes "the things" refer to "the sensory events"?

controlled by the things that were going on around it, by the sensory events that the brain was exposed to.

You've got two noun phrases the things and the sensory events which are post-modified by the relative clauses that were going on around it and that the brain was exposed to respectively. I assume that the preposition phrase by the sensory events that the brain was exposed to is in apposition to the other one by the things that were going on around it so you may infer that there is some correlation between the things around and the sensory events which replicate "the things around" in the sensory system of the brain.

CalifJim · Answer

SweetFreedom1) Does "made the brain out to be" mean "explained/postulated the brain to be"?

Yes.

made the brain out to be completely controlled by ~
considered the brain to be completely controlled by ~
conceived of the brain as an organ which was completely controlled by

SweetFreedom2) Does "the things" refer to "the sensory events"?

Yes.

But technically, no. The relationship is not 'reference'. "things" does not refer to "sensory events". A better way to say it is that "things" and "sensory events" are co-referential. Both refer to the same entities in the world.

That is, the relationship is not word-to-word, but words-to-world.

CJ

Made the brain out to be?

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