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In February and March 1978 I delivered my first series of Gifford Lectures in the University of Edinburgh. These lectures have been published under the title The Human Mystery. The second series of ten lectures were delivered from April 18 to May 4 1979 under the title The Human Psyche. As with the first series, the printed text is actually the manuscript prepared for those lectures, not some later compilation. The lectures were delivered informally, but based strictly on this manuscript. It is hoped that the printed text will convey the dramatic character of a lecture presenta tion. This book must not be regarded as a definitive text in neuroscience, psychology and philosophy, but rather as a series of 'adventures of ideas', to revive a Whiteheadean title. The brain-mind problem has been the theme of three recent books: The Self and Its Brain; The Human Mystery (in its latter part); and now The Human Psyche. In this book there is critical discussion in the first lecture of the materialist hypotheses of the relationship of the self-con scious mind to the brain. In the subsequent lectures the strong dualist-interactionism developed in The Self and Its Brain is explored in depth in relation to a wide variety of phenomena relating to self-consciousness. The aim has been to demonstrate the great explanatory power of dualist interactionism in contrast to the poverty and inadequacy of all varieties of the materialist theories of the mind."
Under the terms of the endowment by Lord Gifford, the Gifford Lectures have been an annual event in the University of Edin burgh since 1887, and also in three other Scottish universities. According to the will of Lord Gifford they were set up " ... to promote and diffuse the study of Natural Theology in the widest sense of that term - in other words, the knowledge of God". The assignment is for ten lectures, and I delivered them from 20 February, to 13 March, 1978. I chose the theme of the Human Mystery because I believe that it is vitally important to emphasize the great mysteries that confront us when, as scientists, we try to understand the natural world including ourselves. There has been a regrettable tendency of many scientists to claim that science is so powerful and all pervasive that in the not too distant future it will provide an explantation in principle of all phenomena in the world of nature including man, even of human consciousness in all its manifesta tions. When that is accomplished scientific materialism will then be in the position of being an unchallengable dogma accounting for all experience.
This volume is based on the Symposium on "The Brain and Human Behavior," held in October of 1969 as a part of the centennial observance of the Loyola Uni versity of Chicago. As President of the University, I was pleased to offer the University's support for the organization of this Symposium and to participate in some of its sessions. The volume which I now have the pleasure to introduce employs the materials of the Symposium as a framework. Its chapters constitute updated and greatly expanded versions of the original presentations, edited and organized so as to constitute an integrated picture of Neurosciences and their epistemological aspects. It seems appropriate for me to describe at this time certain features of this Jesuit University and of its Centennial which are particularly pertinent in the context of the present volume. Loyola University of Chicago opened its classes on September 5, 1870 with a faculty of 4 and a student body of 37. Today, Loyola University is the largest in dependent University in Illinois and the largest institution of higher learning under Catholic sponsorship in the United States of America. The University comprises twelve schools and colleges, a faculty of more than 1,600 and a student body of 16,545. As an institution of learning, this University is dedicated to knowledge; but perhaps more particularly than others, it is dedicated to the integration of truth and the knowledge of man as such."
So much has been written about the scientific contributions of Sherrington that the man himself, and his thoughts, have been overshadowed. More and more, students of history are calling for creative writing on the whole man, particularly when he is a genius. Those interested in the genesis of ideas want to know the settings for discoveries and the relevant circumstances which ushered in new truths and new insights. The "prepared mind" which Pasteur saw as the only one to be "favoured by fortune" is of immense importance in science, and our account of Sherring ton, we hope, will fill a very real gap in this field. During his life Sherrington actively discouraged any sugges tions that a biography be written. For that reason it was not until 1947 that there were any biographical notes by John Fulton, Graham Brown and A. D. Ritchie in a number of the British Medical Journal commemorating his ninetieth birthday, and in addition there was a leading article entitled "The Influence of Sherrington on Oinical Neurology". He left no autobiographical material except the few pages of reminiscences entitled "Mar ginalia", an essay written in honour of Charles Singer (1953).
The titling of this book - "Facing Reality" - came to me unbidden, presumably from my subconscious But, when it came, it seemed to be right, because that essentially is what I am trying to do in this book. " Facing" is to be understood in the sense of "looking at in a steadfast and unflinching manner." It thus contrasts with "Confronting" which has the sense of "looking at with hostility and defiance." As I face life with its joys and its sorrows, its successes and its failures, its peace and its turmoil, my attitude is one of serene acceptance and gratitude and not one of angry and arrogant confrontation and rejection. The other component of the title - "Reality" - is the ultimate reality for each of us as conscious beings - our birth - our self-hood in its long stream of becoming throughout our life - our death and apparent annihilation. This is the Reality that we each of us must face if we are to live and adventure as free and responsible beings and not as mere playthings of chance and circumstance, going through a mean ingless farce from birth to death with the search ever for distraction and self-forgetfulness. As a brain scientist I have specialist knowledge of that wonderful part of the body that is alone concerned in the whole Iife-Iong interplay between the conscious self and the extern al world, including other selves."
Wir nehmen am Evolutionsprozess des Lebens teil, doch ist der Mensch sich erst in den letzten 100 Jahren seines evolutionaren Ursprungs klar geworden. Die Folgen, die die Reorientierung von Mensch zur Natur mit sich bringt, sind noch nicht lange genug T eil seines Lebens gewesen, um in das menschliche begriffliche Denken uber sich selbst aufgenommen worden zu sein. Die emotio- nellen Kontroversen des letzten Jahrhunderts setzten sich in dieses Jahrhundert fort und haben eine vernunftige Einschatzung der Ent- wicklungsgeschichte in Beziehung zum Menschen verzoegert. In den letzten Jahren gab es jedoch ein paar Veroeffentlichungen von fuhren- den Biologen (DOBZHANSKY, 1962, 1967; SIMPSON, 1964; LACK, 1961; THORPE, 1962), die den Beginn einer evolutionaren Philoso- phie zeigen, die auf einem ausgewogenen Verstandnis des evolutiona- ren Prozesses beruht, so wie er heutzutage dargestellt wird. Wenn wir die Geschichte der evolutionaren Entwicklung leben- der Formen uberdenken, haben wir die Tendenz, uns als Betrachter der evolutionaren Reihe zu sehen, indem wir uns der unermesslichen Groesse und wundervollen Produktivitat dieses biologischen Prozes- ses standig erinnern. Aber wir sind in der Reihe. Es genugt nicht, dass wir daran denken, dass der Mensch im allgemeinen davon betroffen ist. Es ist das Gefuhl persoenlichen Miteinbezogenseins, 1 Dieser Text ist die Wiedergabe einer Vorlesung, die am 11. Januar 1967 am Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota, gehalten wurde. Diese dritte jahrliche Nobel Konferenz stand unter dem Thema Der menschliche Geist. Die ursprungliche Form der Vorlesung wurde beibehalten und der Text wurde gegenuber der Konferenz nur wenig geandert.
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