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Physiological Psychology. Consciousness and the Mind-Body problem. Aristotle’s statement of the problem Two or one? Dualism: Two kinds of stuff Cartesian dualism, or one-way interactionism Reciprocal interactionism Occasionalism (Nicholas Malebranche, 1638-1715)
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Consciousness and the Mind-Body problem • Aristotle’s statement of the problem • Two or one? • Dualism: Two kinds of stuff • Cartesian dualism, or one-way interactionism • Reciprocal interactionism • Occasionalism (Nicholas Malebranche, 1638-1715) • Psychophysical parallelism (Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz, 1646-1716)
The mind-body problem; Monism: One kind of stuff • Materialism: Either mind does not exist (Descartes’ view of animals) or it depends for its existence on matter (Julien Offray de la Mettrie, 1709-1751) • Mentalism or immaterialism • Theological mentalism: Berkeley • Solipsism • Mind-stuff theory (Morton Prince, 1854-1929)
The identity position • Double aspect theory (Spinoza) is still dualist. • Dual aspect monism (George Henry Lewes, 1817-1878) • But Lewes insisted that mental and physical descriptions are not interchangeable, avoiding reductionism. • Panprotopsychic identism (Rensch, 1971)
Other points of view • Emergent property position (Sperry) • Epiphenomenalism • Evolutionary psychology and the question of consciousness.
Contributions from physiological psychology • Penfield and brain stimulation studies • Blindsight • Split-brain studies • Left hand bored with book • Left hand makes obscene gestures • Wife-beating/protecting • Is consciousness based, then, in language?
Biological roots of physiological psychology • Andreas Vesalius(1514-1564) • Christopher Wren (1632-1723) and tracing • Thomas Willis (1621-1675), De cerebre anatome • Emilio Golgi and Santiago Ramon y Cajal: Staining
The empirical assessment of Descartes • Swammerdam and Archimedes’ principle • Luigi Galvani and Allessandro Volta • Hermann von Helmholtz • But the reflex arc remains.
Physiological roots • Bell (1812) and Magendie (1823) • Johannes Muller and the Doctrine of Specific Nerve Energies • The neuron doctrine • Pierre Flourens and Paul Broca: Ablation • Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig: ESB • Charles Sherrington and the synapsis
De cerebri anatome • One of Christopher Wren’s drawings for Thomas Willis’s groundbreaking work on the anatomy of the brain, published in 1664. (Contrast enhanced)
On the workings of the human body • A famous illustration from Andreas Vesalius’ groundbreaking work on human anatomy, published in 1543. (Contrast enhanced)
Bell’s anatomy • Charles Bell’s neuroanatomy of the early 19th century adds color, but retains the realism of Vesalius. (Contrast enhanced, picture darkened)