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Christfried Jakob’s 1921 Theory of the Gnoses and Praxes as Fundamental Factors in Cerebral Cortical Dynamics

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Abstract

This study aims at reviving an important contribution by the pioneer neurobiologist and neurophilosopher Christfried Jakob (1866–1956) to the understanding of higher cortical functions. Jakob studied cortical dynamics at multiple levels by comparing gnoses and praxes and their corresponding pathological states, i.e. the agnosias and the apraxias. We herein provide a complete English translation of Jakob’s original Spanish article dating to 1921, and further consider some key points under the scope of the neuropsychological knowledge available then, and the research evidence available 90 years later.

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Notes

  1. According to the Peace of Augsburg (1555), a treaty between Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and the Lurtheran princes, German lay people could freely and unconditionally select their religion. In this respect Catholics recognized Lutheranism. Still, there was a clause consisting in the divestment of all the goods including the territory of an ecclesiastic in case one embraced Protestantism [translators’ note].

  2. The author might conceivably be referring to von Monakow’s contemporary concept of horme, i.e. ‘a hypothetical, self-actualizing force that brought individual processes together into a moral and functional whole’ (c.f., Finger 1994, p. 58) [translators’ note].

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the anonymous reviewers for their constructive criticism which led to an improved manuscript, and the courtesy of the staff at the National Library of Medicine of the United States, the Bibliotheek van de Universiteit van Amsterdam, and the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut Preussischer Kulturbesitz zu Berlin.

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  1. University of Macedonia, 156 Egnatia Ave., Rm. Z-312, 54006, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Lazaros C. Triarhou

  2. Economo-Koskinas Wing for Integrative and Evolutionary Neuroscience, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Zoë D. Théodoridou & Lazaros C. Triarhou

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  1. Zoë D. Théodoridou
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  2. Lazaros C. Triarhou
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Correspondence to Lazaros C. Triarhou.

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Théodoridou, Z.D., Triarhou, L.C. Christfried Jakob’s 1921 Theory of the Gnoses and Praxes as Fundamental Factors in Cerebral Cortical Dynamics. Integr. psych. behav. 45, 247–262 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-010-9145-4

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