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1. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 59
Cristina Amoretti Some Reasons not to be Internalistic about the Physical Correlates of Consciousness
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Among philosophers and scientists it is widely recognized that conscious experience somehow arises from a physical basis, but there is no explanation or agreement of why and how it so arises. There are at least two issues worthy of further analysis. First, how do physical processes give rise to a rich inner life? Second, where and when does phenomenal experience take place? Or, what is the physical locus of conscious experience? In this paper we will limit ourselves to examine the latter issue arguing against the widespread assumption that conscious experience is the result of some yet-to-be-defined activity taking place inside the brain or the central nervous system (CNS). We will show that the brain/CNS is necessary but not sufficient for conscious experience and that there is no match between the content of a neural representational system and the content of related experience. We will also claim that these two desiderata can be met by an externalist conception of the physical correlates of consciousness. We will, thus, advance the thesis that conscious experiences are realized by physical processes extended in space and time, originating in the environment and ending in the brain, that is, by processes partially external to the brain/CNS.
2. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 59
Bernard Baertschi Neurodiversity, Ethics and Medicine
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Progress in our knowledge of the brain’s functioning has led to two related trends. The first consists in a medicalisation of some behaviours that, till now, were considered as pertaining to ethics. The second, in an opposite manner, consists in attributing several conditions, generally considered as pathological or immoral, to human normal diversity, whence the introduction of a new concept: neurodiversity. Thus, for some authors, autism and hyperactivity (ADHD) would not be diseases, psychopathy and paedophilia would not be vices or crimes, but manifestations of human neurodiversity. The topic of neurodiversity is exemplified in the debate about cochlear implants. Some deaf persons refuse implants for their children because they want their children to remain deaf in order to be better integrated in the deaf culture and community. The language of cultural diversity here replaces the language of disability. Some degree of human neurodiversity cannot be denied, but it necessarily encounters limits, and it is important to determine where they are. It also has an impact on our conception of the human condition.
3. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 59
Panagiotis Oulis Integrating Mechanisms and Laws in Psychopathology Research
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It is widely shared by philosophers of science that mechanistic explanations are incompatible with nomological explanations, especially in neuroscience and psychiatry. This incompatibility thesis is usually justified by contrasting the high specificity of explanatory mechanistic generalizations and their restricted domain of application with the universality and unrestricted domain of application of the explanatory nomological generalizations. However, this strict requirement for genuine scientific lawhood has been challenged by showing that most scientific laws are, ceteris paribus, laws, i.e. they hold only to the extent that all other relevant factors are absent, or remain constant (equal). If the requirement of strict universality is relaxed, then nothing prevents mechanistic generalizations from being recognized as lawful. The paper defends the thesis that mechanistic generalizations are specific nomological ones, holding under more numerous ceteris paribus conditions than their generic non-mechanistic counterparts, their difference being one of degree, not of kind. I illustrate extensively the compatibility between laws and mechanisms in an example drawn from contemporary psychopathological research, namely the dopamine hypothesis of delusion formation in the acute psychoses. I conclude that mechanistic explanations are a species of nomological explanations.
4. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 59
Agness Papadopoulou Visual Education in the Light of Neurobiological Functions and Reviewing the Question of Sense Perception and Action of theMind According to Aristotle
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This present educational action research project was implemented on students in non-typical education structures (Second chance Schools) and on students of Higher Education (Technological Institute of Western Macedonia) to promote a new educational model identifying pure visual forms and developing experience-dependent plasticity. The starting point of this project is the Aristotelian thought. Passages and quotations of Aristotle’s work posing questions regarding the functions of sensation, memory, imagination and mind have been analyzed. Aristotle’s view that the experience of personal involvement causes an appropriation of truth has been adopted and the distinction between the two forms of the mind (passive mind and active mind) is a similar one between the biological (physical brain) and energetic function of thought (conceptual outputs). The sensationalism model is established both neurophysiologically and sociologically. Today, more than ever, in a world generated by simulacra, the art of vision should be approached aesthetically and not narratively, with a view to sharpening the learner’s sensationalist capacities while attempting to achieve a better management of visual material. The visual training intends to clarifying cognitive fields from investments in current ideologies, cultural prejudices, survival practices and aims at objectivity, clarity and natural necessity.
5. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 59
Daniel Quesada Phenomenology and Neuroscience on our Ordinary Spatial and Temporal Experience
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In this paper I will contrast the current situation concerning the explanatory relation between neuroscientific and philosophical accounts of our spatial and temporal experience. Evans’ account of “egocentric experience’ and Husserl’s analysis of temporal awareness are respectively taken to represent the philosophical side, while Pouget’s basis functions theory and Grush’s trajectory estimation theory act respectively as representatives of the neuroscientific camp. I inquire specifically about the respective chances of these representative neuroscientific theories to explain aspects of the ordinary spatial and temporal phenomenology, as this phenomenology is accounted for by those well-known philosophical theories. I will argue that, in this respect, the spatial and temporal cases present a strong contrast: while in the spatial case the claim that neuroscientific theories explain some aspects of the phenomenology would be defensible, nothing of this sort is in sight in the temporal case.
6. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 59
Iryna Yershova-Babenko, Sergey Gorishchak, Roman Yenin The Methodological Applicability of Psychoenergetics (post-non-classics) in Neuroscience
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The article considers the issues of the methodology of science, open non-linear self-organizing systems/environments. It offers a new scientific area, named Psychosynergetics and possible applications of its strategies in neuroscience. This article studies a clinical case of a child with diffuse axonal brain injury which caused minimally conscious state and led to vegetative state of the child. The study has been carried out from the standpoint of philosophical-methodological and theoretical principles of Psychosynergetics as a tool of cognition of psycho-dimensional world, which represents Post-Non-Classical science methodology, and is based on the rehabilitation experience as well.
7. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 59
Michele Zanella Neurosciences, Zombies and Free Will: An Argument against Neuroscientific Reductionism
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Neuroscientific experiments concerning the free will issue seem to demonstrate that man has no free will, since all human behaviours are caused by the deterministic neuronal activity, while the mental phenomenas are mere epiphenomenal events, without any causal power. On the other hand an experimental thought about the zombie argument seems to prove that a being without self-consciousness in unable to act as we, human beings, truly act. I suggest that the two claims are not actually conflicting, since they concern different types of human decisions: the first being strictly indifferent decisions, that is to say empty of motivational content, and correspondingly on motiveless choices; the latter are decisions that involve high-level cognitive processes, such as evaluation of information, motivational analysis and elaboration of plans for action, moreover within an intersubjective framework, which can only be understood if we see ourselves as free and self-conscious agents.
articles in greek
8. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 59
Regina Argyraki, Ilias Koromilas Όταν οι νευροεπιστήμες συναντούν τη φιλοσοφία: (κρύβουν ένα πρόβλημα κάτω από το χαλί)
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Οι σκοποί αυτού του άρθρου (που αποτελεί έρευνα εν εξελίξει) είναι δύο: α) Να προκρίνει ένα αισθησιοκρατικό μοντέλο εκπαίδευσης που να βασίζεται σε νευροεπιστημονικά δεδομένα, έναντι ενός παρωχημένου εννοιοκρατικού που βασίζεται στη φιλοσοφία της γλώσσας. Ο βασικός λόγος είναι το γεγονός ότι παρατηρείται διάσταση μεταξύ της εκτεταμένης χρήσης των εννοιοκρατικών κυρίαρχων εξισορροπήσεων που εφαρμόζονται στην εκπαίδευση, ενώ το zeitgeist του εικοστού αιώνα περιγράφεται ως Εποχή των Εικόνων και καθώς ο πολιτισμός μας χαρακτηρίζεται ήδη ως Οπτικός. Επομένως, οι εκπαιδευόμενοι (μέλη διαφορετικών πολιτισμικών υποομάδων) πρέπει να αντιμετωπίσουν μιαν εσωτερική αντίφαση στο μεταμοντέρνο περιβάλλον των μεγα-αστικών υποδοχέων στους οποίους συνωθούνται: είναι καθημερινά δέκτες από ένα τεράστιο κύμα ανιεράρχητης οπτικής πληροφορίας από κάθε είδους δίαυλο επικοινωνίας, δίχως όμως να είναι κατάλληλα εξοπλισμένοι έτσι, ώστε να είναι σε θέση να την κατηγοριοποιήσουν, να την ταξινομήσουν και να την εκτιμήσουν. Κυρίως όμως, δεν μπορούν να διαχειριστούν την ανάδυση της συνείδησης, του μόνου νοητικού φαινομένου πρώτης τάξης και του κατ’ εξοχήν που χαρακτηρίζει το κυρίαρχο βιολογικό είδος. β) Να καταδείξει την ανάγκη νευροεπιστημονικού προσδιορισμού της συνείδησης και τις πιθανές του κατευθύνσεις, καθώς οι απόπειρες εξαφάνισης του όρου από τα νευροεπιστημονικά δεδομένα, κατέληξαν εντελώς ανεπιτυχείς και αδέξιες.
9. Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy: Volume > 59
Αγνή Παπαδοπούλου Οπτική εκπαίδευση υπό το πρίσμα των νευροβιολογικών λειτουργιών: Επανεξετάζοντας το ζήτημα της αισθητηριακής αντίληψης και της επενέργειας του νου κατά τον Αριστοτέλη
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Η συγκεκριμένη εκπαιδευτική έρευνα δράσης πραγματοποιήθηκε σε δομές μη τυπικής εκπαίδευσης (ΣΔΕ) και στη Τριτοβάθμια Εκπαίδευση (TEI Δυτικής Μακεδονίας) με στόχο την προαγωγή ενός νέου παιδευτικού μοντέλου εντοπισμού αμιγώς οπτικών φορμών και ανάπτυξης ισχυρής πλαστικής σκέψης. Το εφαλτήριο τoυ συγκεκριμένου project είναι η Αριστοτελική σκέψη. Αναλύθηκαν χωρία ή παραθέματα από τα έργα του Αριστοτέλη θέτοντας ερωτήματα που αφορούν τις λειτουργίες της αίσθησης, της μνήμης, της φαντασίας, του νου. Υιοθετείται η άποψη του Αριστοτέλη ότι το βίωμα της προσωπικής εμπλοκής προκαλεί μία ιδιοποίηση της αλήθειας και η διάκριση των δύο μορφών του νου (παθητικός νους και ποιητικός νους) είναι συνώνυμη της διάκρισης μεταξύ βιολογικής λειτουργίας (εγκέφαλος) και ενεργητικής λειτουργίας της σκέψης (εννοιακά εξερχόμενα). Tο αισθησιοκρατικό μοντέλο θεμελιώνεται τόσο νευροφυσιολογικά όσο και κοινωνιολογικά. Σήμερα περισσότερο από ποτέ, σε έναν κόσμο παραγόμενο από προσομοιώσεις, η τέχνη της όρασης πρέπει να προσεγγίζεται αισθητικά και όχι αφηγηματικά, αποβλέποντας στην όξυνση των αισθησιοκρατικών δυνατοτήτων των εκπαιδευόμενων, καθώς επιχειρείται επίσης καλύτερη διαχείριση του οπτικού υλικού. Η οπτική εκπαίδευση επιδιώκει να αποκαθάρει γνωσιακούς τομείς από επενδύσεις με τρέχουσες ιδεολογίες, με πολιτισμικές προκαταλήψεις, με επιβιωτικές πρακτικές και στοχεύει στην αντικειμενικότητα, στην καθαρότητα και στη φυσιολογική αναγκαιότητα.