Consciousness and the Brain: A Scientific and Philosophical InquiryGordon Globus The relationship of consciousness to brain, which Schopenhauer grandly referred to as the "world knot," remains an unsolved problem within both philosophy and science. The central focus in what follows is the relevance of science---from psychoanalysis to neurophysiology and quantum physics-to the mind-brain puzzle. Many would argue that we have advanced little since the age of the Greek philosophers, and that the extraordinary accumulation of neuroscientific knowledge in this century has helped not at all. Increas ingly, philosophers and scientists have tended to go their separate ways in considering the issues, since they tend to differ in the questions that they ask, the data and ideas which are provided for consideration, their methods for answering these questions, and criteria for judging the acceptability of an answer. But it is our conviction that philosophers and scientists can usefully interchange, at least to the extent that they provide co~straints upon each other's preferred strategies, and it may prove possible for more substantive progress to be made. Philosophers have said some rather naive things by ignoring the extraordinary advances in the neurosciences in the twentieth century. The skull is not filled with green cheese! On the other hand, the arrogance of many scientists toward philosophy and their faith in the scientific method is equally naive. Scientists clearly have much to learn from philosophy as an intellectual discipline. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 31 |
Empirical Findings | 45 |
Knowledge and Reality | 55 |
References | 68 |
Psychoanalysis and the Symbolic Consciousness | 78 |
4 | 99 |
6 | 128 |
A Simple Approach | 167 |
Mythological | 213 |
Levels and Their Significance For Reduction | 237 |
References | 264 |
10 | 295 |
Intentionality | 305 |
References | 312 |
THE ROLE OF SCIENTIFIC RESULTS IN THEORIES | 317 |
SCIENTIFIC RESULTS AND THE MINDBRAIN | 329 |
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Consciousness and the Brain: A Scientific and Philosophical Inquiry Gordon Globus No preview available - 2012 |
Common terms and phrases
action activity argue argument auxiliary theories awareness behavior believe body Cassirer causal cerebral cerebral cortex claim complex concept consciousness consider corpus callosum cortex Descartes discussion dualism Eccles emergent entities epistemology evidence example existence explain explanatory extrinsic perspective feeling Feigl function Globus human hypothesis identity theory interaction interlevel reduction intralevel intrinsic involved issue kind knowledge language linguistic logical lower level Maxwell meaning mechanisms mental events mind and brain mind-body problem modules monism motor cortex mutual entrainment naive realism nature neural events neuronal neurophysiology neutral monism object observation ontological organization panpsychism perception person phenomena Philos philosophical physical Popper predicted Press Pribram prior probability properties psychology pyramidal cells readiness potential realism reality realm reference relation relationship relevant Russell scientists sense sensory soul Sperry Sperry's split-brain structure subjective idealism symbolic things thought tion University visual experience Wimsatt York