|
Showing 1 - 6 of
6 matches in All Departments
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.
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).
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."
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.
|
You may like...
Caracal
Disclosure
CD
R50
Discovery Miles 500
|