Neurophilosophy Information
Neurophilosophy or philosophy of neuroscience is the interdisciplinary study of neuroscience and philosophy. Work in this field is often separated into two distinct areas of interest. Neurophilosophy attempts to use empirical information from the neurosciences to address broader philosophical issues, including questions traditionally categorized under the philosophy of mind. The philosophy of neuroscience attempts to clarify neuroscientific methods and results using the conceptual rigor and methods of philosophy of science.
Neurophilosophy explores the relevance of neuroscientific studies to arguments in philosophy of mind. Theories in neurophilosophy tend to stand in opposition to those of idealism, dualism, and functionalism, which seek to explain the mental with reference to minds and ideas, rather than the structure and function of the brain.[1]
While the issue of brain-mind is still open for debate, from the perspective of neurophilosophy, an understanding of the philosophical applications of neuroscience discoveries is nevertheless relevant. Even if neuroscience will eventually find that there no casual relationship between brain and mind, the mind would still remain an epiphenomenon of the brain, and as such neuroscience would still be relevant for the philosophy of the mind. At the other end of the spectrum, if neuroscience will eventually demonstrate a perfect overlap between brain and mind phenomena neuroscience would become indispensable for the study of the mind. Clearly, regardless of the status of the brain-mind debate, the study of neuroscience is relevant for philosophy.
The foremost proponents of neurophilosophy are Patricia and Paul Churchland[2].
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Specific issues
Four issues that are characteristic to neurophilosophy are[3]:
- "The indirectness of studies of mind and brain"
- "Relations between psychological and neuroscientific inquiries"
- "Modularity"
- "Computational or representational analysis of brain processing"
List of neurophilosophers
- William Bechtel
- Patricia Churchland
- Paul Churchland
- Francis Crick
- Daniel Dennett
- Ian Gold
- William Hirstein
- Christof Koch
- Humberto Maturana
- Jesse Prinz
- Gerhard Roth
- Francisco Varela
- Torsten de Winkel
Notes
- ^ Clark, 2000
- ^ Bechtel, Mandik and Mundale, 2001, p.viii
- ^ Bechtel, Mandik and Mundale, 2001, citations: p.15, p.16, p.18, p.19
See also
- Biophilosophy
- Cognitive neuroscience
- Eliminative Materialism
- Epiphenomenalism
- Functionalism
- Multiple realisability
- Neuroethics
- Neurophenomenology
- Neuropsychology
- Philosophy of psychology
- Reduction
References
- Bechtel, W., Mandik, P., Mundale, J. (2001). Philosophy meets the neurosciences. In: Bechtel, W., Mandik, P., Mundale, J., & Stufflebeam, R. S. (2001). Philosophy and the Neurosciences: A Reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Clark, A. (2000). Mindware: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Cognitive Science. New York: Oxford University Press.
External links
- Neuroscience. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Philosophy and the Neurosciences Online Resources
- Immagini della Mente: annual interdisciplinary meeting on Neurophilosophy at the University of Milan
- Neurophilosophy: Research in Philosophy of Neuroscience - University of Milan
Further reading
- Churchland, Patricia Smith (2002). Brain-Wise : Studies in Neurophilosophy. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-53200-6.
- Churchland, Patricia Smith (1989). Neurophilosophy : Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain. The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-53085-9.
- Clark, Andy (2000). Mindware: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Cognitive Science. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195138573.
- Northoff, Georg (2004). Philosophy of the Brain: The brain problem. John Benjamins. ISBN 978-0-262-23214-2. http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_bookview.cgi?bookid=AiCR%2052.
- Walter, Henrik (2001). Neurophilosophy of Free Will: From Libertarian Illusions to a Concept of Natural Autonomy. The MIT Press. ISBN 1-58811-417-1.
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