Lecture 06 - Brain Scientists and Kant

Historically, what body part was associated with the soul/mind and why? In other cultures what was associated?

Historically, the heart was much more closely associated with soul/mind than the brain

• It is a clear sign of life (heart beating = clear sign of life -> this is when the soul departs)

• It is active and responsive to the situation which might be emotional in nature

In some cultures (Jewish tradition), less focused on the heart and more so on breathing

What did Roman Galen proposed about the function of the brain? What various things did he discover?

He had some right ideas and more focus on the brain than on the heart BUT inaccurate theories

• Brain controls the body not the heart

• Linked various regions of brain to specific functions

• Distinguished motor from sensory nerves

• Established that urine was made in the kidneys

• Respiration controlled by muscles and nerves

Who was Thomas Willis?

1621-1675

Well-known anatomist

Studied brain anatomy in unprecedented detail and made fundamental discoveries

• Presence of gray and white matter

Who was Pierre Flourens? What did he discover about brain localization of functions?

1794-1867

• 100 years after Locke (jumping ahead)

french scientist in opposition to Gall

did the first systematic ablation studies in animals

• He would very carefully remove an area of the brain in an animal and then nurse them back up and see what that changed

E.g. lesions of the medulla often produced death whereas the cerebellum produced problems with balance whereas cerebral cortex lesions often sensory problems, etc.

What did Flourens conclude however after his ablation studies?

Although he discovered these things he later argued a lack of specificity since after some time animals more or less recovered their functions

• More generalist: certain areas of specialization but other areas eventually take over (little specificity of function)

Who was Paul Broca and what did he discover?

1824-1880

Challenged Flouren's conception of relatively undifferentiated brain function

His findings from investigations of motor aphasia

• Broca’s area: The area of the frontal lobe, identified by Paul Broca, where damage causes impairments in expressive speech, a condition known as Broca’s aphasia, or motor aphasia

• Aphasia: A group of speech disorders resulting from damage to specific areas of the brain

Who was Wernicke and what did he discover?

1848-1905

German neurologist who used localization theory as basis of an influential theory of aphasia

Sensory/Wernicke's aphasia: patients can speak perfectly fluently with correct syntax but their understanding of spoken language is severely impaired

Who was Kant? What was his stance on religion?

1724-1804

Trained in the Leibnizian psychology

More of a rational type and liked to think about deep questions related to the mind and ethics

He was not anti-religious but he thought more who needs God or metaphysics and we can get by without these

• You don't need to have a god to justify ethical behaviours or coming up with concepts

• Strongly motivated to find secular justifications for ethics and some "religious" things

What did Kant believe about ethics?

One classic ethical question is why people should behave ethically even when it goes against their self-interest

• Is the fear of God the only brake?

Kant proposed that "sacrificing" not doing fun/evil things following the "categorical imperative" leads to a sense of duty and self-respect

• Behaving in an ethical way is in your self interest

“Act only according to that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law.”

• Similar to Christian golden rule but in secular context

Idea common in other contexts, e.g., in The Republic Plato essentially argues that “a just man is a happy man”

• And good for society, too, similar to Locke’s social contract

What did Kant say about the soul/mind? What model did he end up proposing?

He didn’t deny its existence but searches for a way that metaphysical explanations are not needed

Billiard ball model

What is the billiard ball model? How did he justify this thinking in a rationalist way?

Inspired by David Hume: "no causality, only associations"

• When one billiard ball hits another you think that the one you hit is causing the other to move BUT cause itself is an abstract concept

• What you know is that Ball A hits Ball B and Ball B moves (its an association)

• We can never prove an unseen metaphysical concept with causality

• You can never see the cause

We only “expect” a billiard ball to move when hit by another because it has done so many times

Kant struggled even to grapple this and since a rationalist said that we have to think like this because we are programmed to think in certain ways (including the causality)

• Also a way to accommodate innate ideas (rationalism) but without resorting to metaphysics

What is a noumenal world vs. a phenomenal world and what did Kant say about them?

1. Noumenal world: Kant's concept of the external world as made up of "things-in-themselves," which exist in a "pure" state, independent of human experience

   1. World as in exist

2. Phenomenal world: Kant's concept of the world as subjectively experienced, after being processed and transformed via the intuitions and categories of the mind

*We will never really know the noumenal world and we are stuck with the phenomenal world*

What are Kant’s definitions of intuitions and categories?

1. Intuitions: Kant's terms for the human mind's automatic ordering of all phenomenal experience in terms of space and time

2. Categories: Kant's term for the characteristics automatically imposed by the mind on phenomenal experience, defining their quality, quantity, relationships and mode

Overall what was Kant’s influence on psychology?

Kant's emphasis on the role of an active mind in creating the phenomenal world

Kant wondered how we think

What is considered the first modern psychology study, and what did the Franklin Commission conclude about Mesmer’s “animal magnetism”? Give context of the time, what did Mesmer propose.

Context: Late 1700s Europe was fascinated by scientific discoveries (e.g., Newton → gravity; Franklin → electricity).

Franz Anton Mesmer: Claimed “animal magnetism” was a physical force that caused and could cure all illness, He treated patients using magnets, later realizing magnets were unnecessary

• Since other methods at the time were more deadly (e.g. draining blood for the humors theory) people were more interested in this method since it was pretty harmless

Benjamin Franklin: A strong supporter of John Locke and part of a French royal commission appointed to investigate Mesmer’s claims

Method: The commission conducted controlled, experimental tests and found no evidence of a magnetic fluid/force.

Conclusion: "crises are caused by suggestion, not a shred of evidence exists for any fluid, and animal magnetism, as a physical force, must be firmly rejected. The practice of magnetization is the art of increasing the imagination by degrees"

• Why it matters: This is an early example of using systematic experimentation to investigate a psychological phenomenon, making it an important precursor to modern psychology.