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Husserl and the mind-brain relation
pp. 51-70
Résumé
The mind-body relation or, more particularly, the mind-brain relation 1 has been a perennial puzzle for philosophers—how can things so different be intimately related? Husserl dealt with the mind-brain relation in Section 63 of Ideen II, "Psychophysischer Parallelismus and Wechselwirkung," 2 where he gave a critique of psychophysical parallelism. For Husserl, the mind-brain relation is to be understood not as a material or metaphysical relation, but as a relation between the presented sense or significance of two varieties of appearances. Husserl's account in this section will be examined and the following points will be discussed: (1) Husserl's argument that the significance of brain states is basic to the full sense of a mind operating in an objective world; (2) Husserl's view that a strict parallelism between the psyche and brain is an eidetic impossibility; (3) Husserl's treatment of these questions, in so far as he raises but does not adequately resolve the issue, whether states of consciousness precede or follow brain states; (4) Husserl's somewhat Cartesian failure to distinguish the phenomenological priority of consciousness from the metaphysical question of the possibility of an existent mind apart from a body.
Détails de la publication
Publié dans:
Ihde Don, Zaner Richard (1977) Interdisciplinary phenomenology. Dordrecht, Springer.
Pages: 51-70
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-015-6893-7_3
Citation complète:
Engelhardt Tristram, 1977, Husserl and the mind-brain relation. In D. Ihde & R. Zaner (eds.) Interdisciplinary phenomenology (51-70). Dordrecht, Springer.