What Makes Us Think?: A Neuroscientist and a Philosopher Argue About Ethics, Human Nature and the BrainPaperback
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- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Format: Paperback | 352 pages
- Dimensions: 138mm x 214mm x 22mm | 422g
- Publication date: 24 February 2002
- Publication City/Country: New Jersey
- ISBN 10: 0691092850
- ISBN 13: 9780691092850
- Edition statement: Reprint
- Illustrations note: 16 halftones 16 line illus.
- Sales rank: 1,143,411
Will understanding our brains help us to know our minds? Or is there an unbridgeable distance between the work of neuroscience and the workings of human consciousness? In a remarkable exchange between neuroscientist Jean-Pierre Changeux and philosopher Paul Ricoeur, this book explores the vexed territory between these divergent approaches - and comes to a deeper, more complex perspective on human nature. Ranging across diverse traditions, from phrenology to PET scans and from Spinoza to Charles Taylor, "What Makes Us Think" revolves around a central issue: the relation between the facts (or 'what is') of science and the prescriptions (or 'what ought to be') of ethics. Changeux and Ricoeur ask: Will neuroscientific knowledge influence our moral conduct? Is a naturally based ethics possible? Pursuing these questions, they attack key topics at the intersection of philosophy and neuroscience: What are the relations between brain states and psychological experience? Between language and truth? Memory and culture? Behavior and action? What is a mental representation? How does a sign relate to at it signifies?How might subjective experience be constructed rather than discovered? And can biological or cultural evolution be considered progressive? Throughout, Changeux and Ricoeur provide unprecedented insight into what neuroscience can - and cannot - tell us about the nature of human experience. Changeux and Ricoeur bring an unusual depth of engagement and breadth of knowledge to each other's subject. In doing so, they make two often hostile disciplines speak to one another in surprising and instructive ways - and speak with all the subtlety and passion of conversation at its very best.
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Jean-Pierre Changeux, Professor of Neurobiology at the College de France, is the author of Neuronal Man and, with Alain Connes, Conversations on Mind, Matter, and Mathematics (both Princeton). Paul Ricoeur is a hermeneutic philosopher and the author of many books, including Time and Narrative.
"The two thinkers lock horns about the grandest of issues: the nature of mind, brain, religion, art, morality, and consciousness... The broad terms of the debate and the erudition of the debaters provide considerable insight into how certain neuroscientists and philosophers attack enigmas that first occupied the ancient Greeks."--Howard Gardner, Chronicle of Higher Education "The mind-body problem, the origins and the ends of thought, the frontiers of brain research and the vexed relations among social norms, ethics and biological facts: all come under complicated scrutiny in this very informative volume..."--Publishers Weekly "Intoxicatingly dense and provocative."--Virginia Quarterly Review "These two amazing minds at work make for a fascinating look at the who, what, and how of thought."--Booklist "Two leading giants face off: the biologist Jean-Pierre Changeux, leading neuroscientist and author of Neuronal Man, and the philosopher Paul Ricoeur, eminent apostle of phenomenology and author of Living Metaphors. The two ... Develop ... a true exchange of ideas, breaking with the preemptory affirmations and unilateral critiques which have too often characterized relations between science and philosophy."--Gerard Badu, Le Nouvel Observateur "The materialist neurobiologist and the philosopher establish a no-holds-barred dialogue, which has resulted in a captivating book: often demanding, but always free of jargon. This exceptional initiative should be a milestone in the history of ideas."--Jean-Claude Escaffit, La Vie "A rich dialogue, insofar as the two men belong to divergent currents of thought ... neither a sham exchange of blows nor an intellectual compromise on either side... This exchange constitutes the most successful exercise of its type ... it throws the perspectives right open."--Yves Christen, Nouveaute "The French literati love bringing two leading figures from what would appear to be disparate fields together and jointly publishing essays on a chosen topic. This generally provides some fascinating point/counterpoint, and this work falls into the camp of exemplary discussions that result from this process... These two amazing minds at work make for a fascinating look at the who, what, and how thought happens."--Choice "Surprise! This dialogue between neuroscientist Changeaux and philosopher Ricoeur really is comprehensible. It works because both authors are well-rounded scholars committed to the clarity of expression ... General readers and professionals who are interested in science and philosophy, including brain surgeons, will enjoy it."--Choice "Despite their disparities, [Changeux and Ricour] manage to converse intensely and well. The dialogue benefits from each partner's ability to listen carefully and respond clearly, and also from the long perspective, based in intellectual history, each takes... Challenging and enlightening."--Carol Albright, The Christian Century "[A] real joy... [T]his debate has a richness that sometimes makes me despair of the aridities of classical Anglo-American cognitive psychology and philosophy of mind."--Steven Rose, New Scientist
Table of contents
Translator's Note vi Prelude ix Chapter 1: A Necessary Encounter Knowledge and Wisdom 3 Knowledge of the Brain and Self-Knowledge 10 The Biological and the Normative 26 Chapter 2: Body and Mind: In Search of a Common Discourse 33 The Cartesian Ambiguity 33 The Contribution of the Neurosciences 41 Toward a Third Kind of Discourse? 63 Chapter 3: The Neuronal Model and the Test of Experience 70 The Simple and the Complex: Questions of Method 70 The Human Brain: Complexity, Hierarchy, Spontaneity 75 Mental Objects: Chimera or Link? 93 Is a Neuronal Theory of Knowledge Possible? 110 Understanding Better by Explaining More 125 Chapter 4: Consciousness of Oneself and of Others 134 Conscious Space 134 The Question of Memory 138 Comprehension of Oneself and of Others 154 Mind or Matter? 169 Chapter 5: The Origins of Morality 179 Darwinian Evolution and Moral Norms 179 The First Structures of Morality 195 From Biological History to Cultural History: Valuing the Individual 202 Chapter 6: Desire and Norms 212 Natural Dispositions to Ethical Systems 212 The Biological Bases of Rules of Conduct 222 Passage to the Norm 239 Chapter 7: Ethical Universality and Cultural Conflict 257 The Natural Foundations of an Ethics of Debate 257 Religion and Violence 259 Paths of Tolerance 272 The Scandal of Evil 279 Toward an Ethics of Deliberation: The Example of Advisory Committees on Bioethics 298 Art as Peacemaker 303 Fugue 311 Notes 313 Index 327