Big brains and Boskops
Phrenology lives
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20400993 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Daniel N Robinson (University of Oxford, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 391-396 |
| Publication date | 2013-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Theory & Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0959-3543 • E-ISSN: 1461-7447 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0959354312471741 |
| OpenAlex | W2021857068 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 8 |
A persistent strategy in contemporary neuroscience would reduce complex social and cognitive phenomena to states and functions of the brain. When extended to reach fundamental issues in philosophy, a new specialty—neurophilosophy—is offered as a means by which to collapse a number of perennial questions into a more tractable set of structure–function relationships. Illustrative are studies of the “locus” of moral decision-making (Greene, Sommerville, Nystrom, Darley, & Cohen, 2001) and challenge to volitionalism based on studies of events in the brain (Libet, 1985). The case of the “Boskops,” presumed possessors of unusually large brains, offers an object lesson in the dangers of arguing hypotheses against facts. Human achievements are the incontestable facts. Whether and how these relate to human anatomy and physiology are questions that are unlikely to be settled by anatomists
Brain function · Cognition · Cognitive science · Epistemology · Linguistics · Metaphysics · Philosophy of mind · Phrenology · Sociology · Computer Science · Free Will and Agency · Medicine · Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations · Neuroscience · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |