This interdisciplinary book ties the historical work of Descartes to his successors through current research and critical overviews on the neuroscience of consciousness, the brain, and cognition. This text is the first historical survey to focus on the cohesions and discontinuities between historical and contemporary thinkers working in philosophy, physiology, psychology, and neuroscience.

The book introduces and analyzes early discussions of consciousness, such as: metaphysical alternatives to scientific explanations of consciousness and its connection to brain activity; claims about the possibilities and limits of neuroscientific accounts of consciousness and cognition; and the proposition of a "non-reductive naturalism" concerning phenomenal consciousness and rationality. The author assesses the contributions of early philosophers and scientists on brain, consciousness and cognition, among them: Descartes, Malebranche, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Newton, Haller, Kant, Fechner, Helmholtz and du Bois-Reymond. The work of these pioneers is related to that of modern researchers in physiology, psychology, neuroscience and philosophy of mind, including: Freud, Hilary Putnam, Herbert Feigl, Gerald Edelman, Jean-Pierre Changeux, Daniel Dennett and David Chalmers, amongst others. This text appeals to researchers and advanced students in the field.

Autorentext

Paolo Pecere is a Professor of History of Philosophy at the University of Roma TRE. His research has focused on the history of philosophy of science from Kant to the 20th century. He has written a number of books, including La filosofia della natura in Kant (2009) and Meccanica quantistica rappresentazione realtà (2011, with A. Bassi and N. Argentieri). He also edited the special issue Philosophy and the books of Quaestio of the Yearbook for the History of Metaphysics (2011) and the collection Il libro della natura (2 vols., 2015).

Inhalt

Introduction: Reconsidering the Cartesian Turn.- 1. Descartes' double legacy.- 2. Metaphysics, mechanism and the conscious mind.- 3. Matter, active powers and the limits of knowledge.- 4. Physiology of mind and autonomy of reason: a Kantian legacy.- 5. Consciousness and the unconscious: between physiology and psychology.- 6. Twin worlds: materialism, panpsychism and the problem with sensation.- 7. Philosophy of mind and neuroscience: evidence, hypothesis, critique.