Neurophilosophy

Abstract

Recent neuroscientific progress has led to the extension of neuroscience to apply and include also concepts like consciousness, free will, self, etc. that were originally discussed in philosophy. This has led to the recent emergence of a new field – neurophilosophy. The term “neurophilosophy” is often used either implicitly or explicitly for the characterization of an investigation of philosophical theories in relation to neuroscientific hypothesis. According to Breidbach [1], pp. 393–394, “neurophilosophy” had already been implicitly practiced at the turn of the last century by W. Wundt (1832–1920), for instance. Another neurophilosopher, though not named as such, was Schopenhauer who was probably the first philosopher to introduce the concept of the brain in the philosophical context. The French philosopher M. Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961) may also be considered a neurophilosopher since in his ‘Phenomenology of perception’ he explicitly introduces the brain and its neural organisation and links it to perception and other originally philosophical concepts.