Neuroscience, Neurohistory, and the History of Science

This essay introduces a Focus section on "Neurohistory and History of Science" by distinguishing images of the brain as governor and as transducer: the former treat the brain as the executive control center of the body, the latter as an interface between the organism and reality at large. Most of the consternation expressed in the symposium about the advent of neurohistory derives from the brain-as-governor conception, which is rooted in a "biologistic" understanding of humanity that in recent years has become bound up in various nefarious "neoliberal" political and economic agendas. However, given the sophisticated attitude that neurohistory's leading champion, Daniel Smail, displays toward evolutionary theory's potential impact on historical practice, he is perhaps better understood as part of the brain-as-transducer tradition. This tradition, largely suppressed in current representations of neuroscience, has a strong theological provenance, ultimately concerned with our becoming attuned to the divine frequency, not least by extending the powers of the human nervous system through technology. This essay sympathetically explores the implications of this perspective for historical practice

Art · Champion · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Focus (optics · Governor · Humanity · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Historical Philosophy and Science · History of Medicine Studies · Law · Neuroscience · Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs · Philosophy · Psychology

• The brain as artificial intelligence

  Open Access•Fuller, Steve Fuller•AI & Society•2019

  Añadir item

• Exposing the ‘neuro-creed’

  Open Access•Gonzalo Talavera•History of Psychiatry•2019

  Añadir item

• What is Context

  Open Access•Raymond Boudon•KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für…•2014

  Añadir item

• Historiography, affect, and the neurosciences

  Larry S Mcgrath•History of Psychology•2016

  Añadir item

• The metaphysical standing of the human

  Open Access•Fuller•History of the Human Sciences•2019

  Añadir item

• From phrenology to the laboratory

  Open Access•Tom Quick•History of the Human Sciences•2014

  Añadir item

• Reductionism in epigenetics

  Open Access•Stephen T Casper•History of the Human Sciences•2018

  Añadir item

• New bottles for new wine

  Open Access•Chris Renwick•The Sociological Review Monographs•2016

  Añadir item

• New Bottles for New Wine

  Open Access•Chris Renwick•The Sociological Review•2016

  Añadir item

• Preparing for Life in Humanity 2.0

  Open Access•Fuller, Steve Fuller•Preparing for Life in Humanity 2. 0•2013

  Añadir item

• The varieties of religious experience

  William James•1902

  Añadir item

• Longitudinal evidence that fatherhood decreases testosterone in human males

  Open Access•L T Gettler, T W Mcdade et al.•Proceedings of the National…•2011

  Añadir item

• Maternal Care, Hippocampal Glucocorticoid Receptors, and Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Responses to Stress

  Open Access•Dong Liu, Josie Diorio et al.•Science•1997

  Añadir item

• A Plague of Sheep

  Open Access•Elinor G K Melville•Plague of Sheep•1994

  Añadir item

• Reason, Truth and History

  Open Access•Hilary Putnam•Reason, Truth and History•1981

  Añadir item

• Reenchanted Science

  Anne Harrington•Reenchanted Science•1996

  Añadir item

• Biology and the Deep History of Homicide

  Randolph Roth•The British Journal of Criminology•2011

  Añadir item

• Violence and Predation in Late Medieval Mediterranean Europe

  Open Access•D L Smail•Comparative Studies in Society…•2012

  Añadir item

• British Sociology’s Lost Biological Roots

  Open Access•Chris Renwick•British Sociology's Lost…•2012

  Añadir item

• Guns, Germs, and Steel

  Jared M Diamond, Jared Diamond•Guns, germs, and steel•1999

  Añadir item

• The Shape of the History of Science Profession, 2038

  Lynn K Nyhart•Isis•2013

  Añadir item

• The History of Science as Oxymoron

  Ken Alder•Isis•2013

  Añadir item