What is neurophilosophy: Do we need a non-reductive form?
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What is neurophilosophy: Do we need a non-reductive form? Philipp Klar1,2 Received: 24 April 2020 / Accepted: 8 October 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Neurophilosophy is a controversial scientific discipline lacking a broadly accepted definition and especially a well-elaborated methodology. Views about what neurophilosophy entails and how it can combine neuroscience with philosophy, as in their branches (e.g. metaphysics, epistemology, ethics) and methodologies, diverge widely. This article, first of all, presents a brief insight into the naturalization of philosophy regarding neurophilosophy and three resulting distinguishable forms of how neuroscience and philosophy may or may not be connected in part 1, namely reductive neurophilosophy, the parallelism between neuroscience and philosophy which keeps both disciplines rather strictly separated and lastly, non-reductive neurophilosophy which aims for a bidirectional connection of both disciplines. Part 2 presents a paradigmatic example of how these three forms of neuroscience and philosophy approach the problem of self, mainly concerning its ontological status (existence and reality). This allows me to compare all three neurophilosophical approaches with each other and to highlight the benefits of a non-reductive form of neurophilosophy. I conclude that especially non-reductive neurophilosophy can give full justice to the complementary position of neurophilosophy right at the intersection between neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology. Keywords Neurophilosophy · Philosophy of mind · Philosophy of neuroscience · Consciousness · Self
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Philipp Klar [email protected]
1
Cécile and Oskar Vogt Institute of Brain Research, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
2
Mönchengladbach, Germany
123
Synthese
1 Introduction and an overview of the distinct forms of neurophilosophy Neurophilosophy is a scientific discipline connecting neuroscience and philosophy and that intends to research former genuine philosophical topics, such as the ancient and major topics of consciousness, the self, and free will. These philosophical topics faced the enormous development of imaging-methods (neuroimaging) in the last past 35–40 years, hence resulting in an increasing interest of neuroscience in them which allows different kinds of interaction between both disciplines today. To chronologically introduce the development of each form of neurophilosophy, a threefold differentiation between reductive neurophilosophy, parallelism between neuroscience and philosophy, and non-reductive neurophilosophy will be defined in the perspective of the following main principles concerning the possible connection of neuroscience with philosophy: – – – –
Naturalization of philosophy; Branches of philosophy and linkage to empirical sciences; Philosophical and empirical methodology; and Stance towards the brain and mind or consciousness.
Since naturalization of philosophy is a prerequisite for the connection of neuroscience with philosophy and therefore neurophilosophy, it s
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