Sartre’s Existentialism and Current Neuroscience Research
Digby Tantam
Existential Analysis Journal of the Society for Existential Analysis July 1, 2008 DOI: 10.65828/mmnn7b86 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that neuroscientific imaging findings are ratifying many of Sartre's phenomenological insights into consciousness, and proposes a self-propelling, flock-living machine as an illustration of those insights and of Sartre's account of being human. |
Abstract
Sartre's brilliant and indefatigable investigations of consciousness are less well read than they used to be. But the advent of positron emission tomography, functional magnetic resonance imaging, and magnetoencephalography has enabled neuroscientist to look at the functioning brain during tasks requiring consciousness, and they are ratifying many of the insights that Sartre obtained from phenomenology. This paper reviews these, and introduces a self-propelling, flock living machine as an illustration of them, and of the basics of being human that Sartre set out, principally in the early phase of his career culminating in 'Being and Nothingness'.