Thammasat University students who are interested in allied health sciences, philosophy, biology, computer science, mathematics, and other subjects may find it useful to download a book available online for free until Wednesday, 23 February 2022.
Philosophy of Neuroscience is by Professor William Bechtel, who teaches philosophy at the University of California, San Diego, the United States of America and Dr. Linus Ta-Lun Huang, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Hong Kong.
The Thammasat University Library collection includes many books about different aspects of neuroscience.
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developmental biology, computer science and mathematical modeling.
Neuroscience attempts to understand the biological basis of learning, memory, behavior, perception, and consciousness.
The book’s introduction begins:
Neuroscience is an interdisciplinary scientific inquiry of neural processes. We commonly identify these processes with the brain, but in fact neurons are distributed throughout animal bodies (we have over 500 million neurons in our guts, constituting what is referred to as the enteric nervous system). The reason neuroscience is interdisciplinary is that the research techniques of different disciplines are required to understand neural processes. Most obvious are anatomy and physiology, which address the structure and operation of neurons and the larger structures built out of them. Genetics has proven extremely important both for characterizing neural processes but also for altering them (alteration is required in any experimental study). Often, given the complexity of neural processes, it is helpful to model them computationally, giving computer science an important role in the interdisciplinary mix. One of the reasons neural processes have drawn so much interest is their role in behavior and cognitive function; accordingly, psychology and cognitive science are also important contributors to neuroscience. What motivates philosophers to examine neuroscience? There are a variety of motives. One is the thought that knowing about the brain tells us important things about ourselves that are relevant to other philosophical inquiries about topics such as whether human action is free, whether we can know our world, and what it is to be conscious…
A second motive is to apply philosophical methods to problems in neuroscience. Philosophers often have skills that enable them to generate hypotheses, integrate different findings, and clarify concepts in ways that are useful to neuroscience…
Our primary focus will be on a third approach that investigates how neuroscience functions as a science: Which methods are employed? Which organisms are studied? What does a neuroscientific explanation look like? Since these are philosophy of science questions about neuroscience, this approach is best labeled philosophy of neuroscience. Since neuroscience constitutes the subject matter of our inquiry, we will at various points present some of the knowledge developed in neuroscience.
Here are some thoughts about neuroscience by authors, most of whom are represented in the TU Library collection:
The biggest single obstacle to the full use of mathematics in real neuroscience is the sheer difficulty of the relevant mathematics. The brain is far more complex than today’s computers; therefore to understand it, one must use even more sophisticated mathematics than the average research engineer is familiar with. Because of this difficulty, a few “middle men” have presented oversimplified description of biology to the engineers, and oversimplified descriptions of the engineering to the biologists. These oversimplifications have often led to considerable misunderstanding and justified mistrust.
- Karl H. Pribram (1994) Origins: Brain and Self Organization.
Although many philosophers used to dismiss the relevance of neuroscience on grounds that what mattered was “the software, not the hardware”, increasingly philosophers have come to recognize that understanding how the brain works is essential to understanding the mind.
- Patricia Churchland
The fact that a gene must be switched on to form a long-term memory shows clearly that genes are not simply determinants of behavior but are also responsive to environmental stimulation, such as learning…
For all of us, explicit memory makes it possible to leap across space and time and conjure up events and emotional states that have vanished into the past yet somehow continue to live in our minds…
Recall of memory is a creative process. What the brain stores is… only a core memory. Upon recall, this memory is then elaborated upon and reconstructed, with subtractions, additions, elaborations, and distortions…
What biological processes enable me to review my own history with such emotional vividness?
Aspects of visual perception—motion, depth, form, and color—are segregated from one another and conveyed in separate pathways in the brain, where they are brought together and coordinated into a unified perception…
What strategy does the brain use to read itself out? That question, which is central to the unitary nature of conscious experience, remains one of the many unresolved mysteries of the new science of mind…
The firing of individual nerve cells involved in perceptual and motor processing is modified by attention and decision making…
I continue to explore the science in which I work almost like a child, with naïve joy, curiosity, and amazement…
I was astonished to discover that working in the laboratory—doing science in collaboration with interesting and creative people—is dramatically different from taking courses and reading about science…
The life of a biological scientist in the United States is a life of discussion and debate—it is the Talmudic tradition writ large. …The egalitarian structure of American science encourages this camaraderie. …this would not—could not—have taken place in the Austria, the Germany, the France, or perhaps even the England of 1955…
I have at times felt alone, uncertain, without a well-trodden path to follow. Every time I embarked on a new course, there were well-meaning people… who advised against it. I had to learn early on to be comfortable with insecurity and to trust my own judgement on key issues…
We now understand that every mental state and every mental disorder is a disorder of brain function. Treatments work by altering the structure and function of the brain…
It is much more meaningful and enjoyable to read the scientific literature about experiments you are involved in yourself than to read about science in the abstract…
Once I have gotten into a problem, I find it extremely helpful to get a complete perspective, to learn what earlier scientists thought about it. I want to see not only what lines of thought proved to be productive, but also where and why certain other directions proved to be unproductive…
Nothing is more stimulating for self-education than working in a new area…
Having been trained in history and the humanities, where one learns early on how depressing life can be, I am delighted to have ultimately switched to biology, where a delusional optimism still abounds…
- Eric Kandel, In Search of Memory (2006)
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)