The self: From philosophy to cognitive neuroscience
Neurocase April 18, 2011 DOI: 10.1080/13554794.2010.532808 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 12 |
| Key findings | Argues that philosophical debates on the self can be illuminated by cognitive neuroscience, and that neuroscience can benefit from philosophical distinctions. The review maps specific philosophical traditions to neuroscientific findings, suggesting that interdisciplinary exchange is productive. |
Abstract
Neuroscientists have recently begun to explore topics, such as the nature of the self, that were previously considered problems for philosophy rather than for science. This article aims to provide a starting point for interdisciplinary exchange by reviewing three philosophical debates about the nature of the self in light of contemporary work in cognitive neuroscience. Continental rationalist and British empiricist approaches to the unity of the self are discussed in relation to earlier work on split-brain patients, and to more recent work on "mental time travel" and the default mode network; the phenomenological movement, and the central concept of intentionality, are discussed in relation to interoceptive accounts of emotion and to the mirror neuron system; and ongoing philosophical debates about agency and autonomy are discussed in relation to recent work on action awareness and on insight in clinical populations such as addicts and patients with frontotemporal dementia.