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Emil du Bois-Reymond’s Reflections on Consciousness

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Book cover Brain, Mind and Consciousness in the History of Neuroscience

Part of the book series: History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences ((HPTL,volume 6))

Abstract

The late nineteenth-century Ignorabimus controversy over the limits of scientific knowledge has often been characterized as proclaiming the end of intellectual progress, and by implication, as plunging Germany into a crisis of pessimism from which Liberalism never recovered. My research supports the opposite interpretation. The initiator of the Ignorabimus controversy, Emil du Bois-Reymond, was a physiologist who worked his whole life against the forces of obscurantism, whether they came from the Catholic and Conservative Right or the scientistic and millenarian Left. Du Bois-Reymond’s doubt that scientists would ever elucidate consciousness must therefore be seen as an endorsement, and not a rejection, of his faith in reason.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Du Bois-Reymond 1912d, p. 441. My translations are based on du Bois-Reymond, E. 1874 and my discussion is based on Finkelstein 2013.

  2. 2.

    Ibid., 1912d, pp. 442–443.

  3. 3.

    Laplace 1814, pp. 3–4.

  4. 4.

    du Bois-Reymond 1912d, p. 443. The Hagia Sophia was an Orthodox patriarchal basilica until 1453. “Lestang”, The Man in the Iron Mask, was imprisoned by Louis XIV. His identity was never disclosed. The British passenger liner SS President, the largest ship in the world, left New York for Liverpool on 11 March 1841 and vanished without a trace.

  5. 5.

    Ibid., 1912d, pp. 443–444, quoting d’Alembert 1893, p. 48.

  6. 6.

    Of quantum mechanics, it turned out. Ibid., pp. 445–446.

  7. 7.

    Ibid., p. 446.

  8. 8.

    Ibid., p. 447.

  9. 9.

    Ibid., p. 448. How they did this was a mystery: action at a distance contradicted itself, and action across media failed to explain variations in density.

  10. 10.

    Ibid., p. 449.

  11. 11.

    Ibid., pp. 451–452. Jacques-Henri Bernardin de St. Pierre (1737–1814) was a writer and botanist best known for his novel Paul and Virginia. Eduard Pöppig (1798–1868) was a scientific explorer of South America. Du Bois-Reymond preferred the soberer language of Darwin and Moltke. Emil du Bois-Reymond to Jeannette Claude, 9 July 1853, Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz zu Berlin, Haus 2, Handschriftenabteilung, hereafter SBBPK, Dep. 5 K. 11 Nr. 5; du Bois-Reymond 1912f, p. 57.

  12. 12.

    Ibid., p. 453.

  13. 13.

    Ibid., pp. 453–455.

  14. 14.

    Ibid., p. 457.

  15. 15.

    Ibid., p. 458.

  16. 16.

    Ibid., p. 460.

  17. 17.

    Ibid., p. 459.

  18. 18.

    Ibid., pp. 460–461.

  19. 19.

    Ibid., pp. 461–462. Cf. J. S. Mill 1859: “… no rational person can doubt the closeness of the connexion between functions of the nervous system and the phenomena of mind, nor can think any exposition of the mind satisfactory, into which that connexion does not enter as a prominent feature (p. 295).”

  20. 20.

    Ibid., pp. 462–463. Most likely du Bois-Reymond is alluding to Heinrich von Kleist’s version of Amphitryon (1807), in which the hapless Sosia is tricked and thrashed by his divine Doppelgänger Mercury.

  21. 21.

    Ibid., p. 436.

  22. 22.

    Ibid., pp. 463–464.

  23. 23.

    Ibid., p. 462.

  24. 24.

    Ibid., p. 464. “In medieval England a jury could bring in four alternative verdicts at a trial: Guilty, Not Guilty, Ignoramus (we do not know), Ignorabimus (we shall not know).” Humphrey 1982, p. 477.

  25. 25.

    Anderton 1993, p. 215, quoting Kastan 1885; du Bois-Reymond 1885.

  26. 26.

    Haeckel 1874, p. 131.

  27. 27.

    Köstlin 1874, p. 18; Pesch 1875, p. 495.

  28. 28.

    Hartmann 1876, p. 433.

  29. 29.

    Dietzgen 1903, p. 178. Hoffmann 1874, p. 504; Dühring 1878, p. 519; cf. Engelhardt 1976; Engelhardt 1981.

  30. 30.

    du Bois-Reymond 1912g, pp. 93–94n1. My translations are based on du Bois-Reymond 1882.

  31. 31.

    Ibid., p. 65.

  32. 32.

    Dove 1898, p. 432.

  33. 33.

    1912g, 66; cf. Tennant 2007.

  34. 34.

    Ibid., pp. 66–67.

  35. 35.

    Ibid., p. 67.

  36. 36.

    Ibid., pp. 68–69; Strauss 1873, pp. xvi–xxiii.

  37. 37.

    Ibid., p. 70.

  38. 38.

    Strauss 1873, p. xxi.

  39. 39.

    du Bois-Reymond 1912g, pp. 71–72; Haeckel 1876, pp. 38–39.

  40. 40.

    Otto Zacharias to Ernst Haeckel, Dessau, 9 June 1876, in Nöthlich, et al. 2006, pp. 217–218; Emil du Bois-Reymond to Hermann Helmholtz, 7 May 1881, in Kirsten (Ed.) 2006, p. 264.

  41. 41.

    du Bois-Reymond 1912g, pp. 71–73.

  42. 42.

    English in the original.

  43. 43.

    Ibid., p. 75.

  44. 44.

    Ibid., pp. 75–76.

  45. 45.

    Ibid., pp. 77–78.

  46. 46.

    Ibid., p. 78. “Mancher hat Dubois-Reymond dies Beweisführung zum Vorwurf gemacht, Mancher seine Gebietsbegrenzung des Naturerkennens zu eng genannt, widerlegt hat ihn Keiner.” Anon., Leipziger Zeitung, 25 January 1874, p. 45.

  47. 47.

    Ibid., p. 79.

  48. 48.

    Ibid., pp. 78–80.

  49. 49.

    Ibid., pp. 80–81.

  50. 50.

    Ibid., p. 80.

  51. 51.

    Ibid., p. 81.

  52. 52.

    Ibid., pp. 81–82.

  53. 53.

    Ibid., p. 82.

  54. 54.

    Ibid., pp. 83–85.

  55. 55.

    As studies of reflex action and the autonomic nervous system had shown.

  56. 56.

    Ibid., p. 85.

  57. 57.

    Ibid., p. 86. Caius Sempronius Gracchus was a liberal Roman senator who wanted to extend the franchise to all Latin citizens. His political opponent, Lucius Optimus, used the death of his servant as a pretext to arrest and execute thousands of Caius’s supporters. The allusion to Bismarck’s Anti-Socialist Law of 1878 was obvious.

  58. 58.

    Ibid., pp. 86–87.

  59. 59.

    Ibid., p. 87. 14. Cf. Figaro’s philosophy, The Marriage of Figaro, act V, sc. 19: “Par le sort de la naissance,/L’un est roi, l’autre est berger:/Le hasard fit leur distance;/L’esprit seul peut tout changer./De vingt rois que l’on encense,/Le trépas brise l’autel;/Et Voltaire est immortel.”

  60. 60.

    Nye 1976, 280–281; Hacking 1983, 464–465; Hacking 1998, 150–159.

  61. 61.

    du Bois-Reymond 1912g, pp. 87–91; Nye 1976, 290n38.

  62. 62.

    Barrow 1998, pp. 232–236.

  63. 63.

    du Bois-Reymond 1912g, p. 92.

  64. 64.

    du Bois-Reymond 1848–1884, vol. 1, pp. xxxv–xxxvi.

  65. 65.

    du Bois-Reymond 1912g, p. 93.

  66. 66.

    du Bois-Reymond 1864, Bl. 32v; du Bois-Reymond to Hermann Helmholtz, 25 March 1862, in Kirsten (Ed.) 1986, pp. 202–203.

  67. 67.

    du Bois-Reymond 1912g, p. 93.

  68. 68.

    Hall 1881, p. 236; Mehring 1899–1900; Hartenau 1898; Bölsche 1918, pp. 79–80; Bölsche 1897, pp. 41–42; Bourget 1891, pp. 21–22; Theta 1882; Spir 1883, pp. 1–10; Ehrenfels 1886, pp. 483–484.

  69. 69.

    Mach 1895, p. 208; cf. Lübbe 1981, pp. 140–141; Anderton 1993, pp. 501–503; Reichenberger 2007, p. 83.

  70. 70.

    du Bois-Reymond 1912c, p. 438; Emil du Bois-Reymond to Gerhard Berthold 14 August 1874, in Dannemann 1919–1920, pp. 270–271; Herneck 1960, pp. 245–247.

  71. 71.

    Emil du Bois-Reymond to Eugen Dreher, 3 October 1889, in Dreher 1900, pp. 113–115.

  72. 72.

    Emil du Bois-Reymond to Gerhard Berthold, 14 August 1874, in Dannemann 1919–1920, pp. 270–271.

  73. 73.

    Franck, “Erkenntnislehre” (1930–1931), p. 128; du Bois-Reymond 1974, p. xxxiii; Anderton 1993; Vidoni 1991, pp. 137–156; Reichenberger 2007.

  74. 74.

    du Bois-Reymond 1907, pp. 7, 11.

  75. 75.

    du Bois-Reymond 1912g, p. 94.

  76. 76.

    Lange 1875, 2(2), 157–158.

  77. 77.

    Wahsner 2007; Goethe 1850, 1, 272; du Bois-Reymond 1974, p. xviii; Albert 1993.

  78. 78.

    Tyndall 1897.

  79. 79.

    du Bois-Reymond 1848–1884.

  80. 80.

    Barton 1987, p. 129.

  81. 81.

    Emil du Bois-Reymond to Jeannette du Bois-Reymond, London, 31 Brook Street, 12 May 1855, SBBPK, Dep. 5 K. 11 Nr. 5.

  82. 82.

    Du Bois heard Kingsley speak at the Royal Institution, and Mansel inspired Huxley’s agnosticism. Emil du Bois-Reymond to Jeannette du Bois-Reymond, London, 24 April 1866, SBBPK, Dep. 5 K. 11 Nr. 5; Lightman 1987.

  83. 83.

    Emil du Bois-Reymond to his parents, 25 June 1851, SBBPK, Dep. 5 K. 11 M. 5 Bl. 11; Ellen du Bois-Reymond, “El Arenal”, SBBPK, Dep. 5, K. 12, Nr. 299, 27; Diderot 2000, p. 82; Denis Diderot to Sophie Volland, 15 October 1759, Diderot 1875–1877, 18, pp. 407–409; Wahsner 2007, pp. 50–53; Voltaire 1901, pp. 227–231; Voltaire 1877–1883. Du Bois-Reymond tellingly claimed that Voltaire possessed the skeptical “spirit of the modern scientist, who never hesitates to concede his ignorance and to acknowledge the limits of his understanding.” 1912a, p. 332.

  84. 84.

    Rousseau 1762, 3, p. 68; Pascal 1850, pp. 64, 66–67; Pascal 1995, p. 28; Vyverberg 1958; Baker 1975, p. 368; Wahsner 2007, pp. 47–50.

  85. 85.

    Dep. 5 K. 10 Nr. 3, SBBPK, Dep. 5 K. 10 Nr. 3. Cf. Voltaire 1901, p. 231: “In effect, it would be very singular that all nature, all the planets, should obey eternal laws, and that there should be a little animal 5 feet high, who, in contempt of these laws, could act as he pleased, solely according to his caprice. He would act by chance; and we know that chance is nothing. We have invented this word to express the known effect of all unknown causes.”

  86. 86.

    Du Bois-Reymond 1848–1884 , 1, pp. xl–xli.

  87. 87.

    Ibid., 1, pp. xlii-xlii. For a critique, see Aliotta 1914, p. 376. Kirchhoff’s debt to du Bois-Reymond has been acknowledged only in passing. Oldham 2008, pp. 244–276.

  88. 88.

    SBBPK, Nachlaß du Bois-Reymond, K. 12 M. 8 Nr. 11 Bl. 32r–32v; Bl. 37v–38r; Bl. 38r–39r.

  89. 89.

    Shattuck 1996.

  90. 90.

    du Bois-Reymond 1912a, p. 332; 1912b, p. 388; 1912c, p. 437.

  91. 91.

    Florey 1996, p. 168; Domin 1963, p. 115.

  92. 92.

    Cassirer 1956, pp. 3–10, 48–49, 62–65, 149–152; Cassirer 2003, pp. 159–162 Cassirer took quantum mechanics for confirmation of idealism and positivism, which it isn’t; he assumed du Bois-Reymond to be a naïve realist and materialist, which he wasn’t; and worst of all, he passed off du Bois-Reymond’s language and arguments as his own.

  93. 93.

    Cushing 1994; Beller 1999; Stöltzner 2003; Howard 2004; Thurs 2009, pp. 196–205. For the relation of mechanism and consciousness, see Penrose 1989; Penrose 1994. For critiques, see McCarthy 1990; McCullough 1995; Chalmers 1995; Grush and Churchland 1995; LaForte, Hayes, and Ford 19981998. My favorite objection goes like this: Penrose’s argument for the nonalgorithmicity of thought is entirely formal. One could imagine the Laplacian demon making it.

  94. 94.

    du Bois-Reymond 1912g, p. 73; cf. 1912b, pp. 383–384.

  95. 95.

    du Bois-Reymond 1912e, pp. 530–531.

  96. 96.

    du Bois-Reymond 1912h, pp. 170–172; Gaukroger 2000, pp. 383–400.

  97. 97.

    SBBPK, Nachlaß du Bois-Reymond, K. 12 M. 8 Nr. 11 Bl. 32v. Willkür means “arbitrariness” but can also translate as “despotism” or “caprice.”

  98. 98.

    Planck 1933, p. 118; Holton 1988; McGinn 1991; Nagel 1998.

  99. 99.

    Sartre 1938; Turner 1921; Adams 1996, p. 429.

  100. 100.

    Fontane 2002; Mann 1892; Riedel 1996, 231; Broch 1988, p. 55; Baroja 1974; 1920, p. 33; Unamuno 1925, p. 156; Flaubert 1976, p. 286.

  101. 101.

    Lem 2002.

  102. 102.

    Frank 2002, pp. 45–48.

  103. 103.

    Wundt 1866; Mach 1911; du Bois-Reymond 1848–1884, 1, xxv-l; du Bois-Reymond 1912h, pp. 170–171; Seth 2007, pp. 25–51.

  104. 104.

    Beller 2001; Lees 2002; Jenkins 2003; Coen, 2007.

  105. 105.

    Cassirer 1956, p. 3.

  106. 106.

    Hacking 1998, pp. 150–153.

  107. 107.

    McCarty 2005; Tennant 2007.

  108. 108.

    SBBPK, Nachlaß du Bois-Reymond, K. 12 M. 8 Nr. 11 Bl. 27v, 29v. “A dynamic theory would begin by assuming that all history, terrestrial or cosmic, mechanical or intellectual, would be reducible to this formula if we knew the facts.” Adams 1996, p. 489.

  109. 109.

    26 November 1874, Cranefield 1982, p. 113.

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  1. History Department, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado, USA

    Gabriel Finkelstein

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  1. Department of Vision Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom

    C.U.M. Smith

  2. Department of Psychology, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, Michigan, USA

    Harry Whitaker

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Finkelstein, G. (2014). Emil du Bois-Reymond’s Reflections on Consciousness. In: Smith, C., Whitaker, H. (eds) Brain, Mind and Consciousness in the History of Neuroscience. History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8774-1_10

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