The Self and Its Brain

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XVI

   PDF

2. Part I

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Materialism Transcends Itself

      • Karl R. Popper, John C. Eccles

      Pages 3-35

   3. The Worlds 1, 2 and 3

      • Karl R. Popper, John C. Eccles

      Pages 36-50

   4. Materialism Criticized

      • Karl R. Popper, John C. Eccles

      Pages 51-99

   5. Some Remarks on the Self

      • Karl R. Popper, John C. Eccles

      Pages 100-147

   6. Historical Comments on the Mind-Body Problem

      • Karl R. Popper, John C. Eccles

      Pages 148-208

   7. Summary

      • Karl R. Popper, John C. Eccles

      Pages 209-210

3. Part II

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 225-226

      PDF

   2. The Cerebral Cortex

      • Karl R. Popper, John C. Eccles

      Pages 227-249

   3. Conscious Perception

      • Karl R. Popper, John C. Eccles

      Pages 250-274

   4. Voluntary Movement

      • Karl R. Popper, John C. Eccles

      Pages 275-294

   5. The Language Centres of the Human Brain

      • Karl R. Popper, John C. Eccles

      Pages 295-310

   6. Global Lesions of the Human Cerebrum

      • Karl R. Popper, John C. Eccles

      Pages 311-333

   7. Circumscribed Cerebral Lesions

      • Karl R. Popper, John C. Eccles

      Pages 334-354

   8. The Self-conscious Mind and the Brain

      • Karl R. Popper, John C. Eccles

      Pages 355-376

   9. Conscious Memory: The Cerebral Processes Concerned in Storage and Retrieval

      • Karl R. Popper, John C. Eccles

      Pages 377-406

4. Dialogues Between the Two Authors

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 423-423

      PDF

   2. Dialogue I

      • Karl R. Popper, John C. Eccles

      Pages 425-436

   3. Dialogue II

      • Karl R. Popper, John C. Eccles

      Pages 437-448

The problem of the relation between our bodies and our minds, and espe­ cially of the link between brain structures and processes on the one hand and mental dispositions and events on the other is an exceedingly difficult one. Without pretending to be able to foresee future developments, both authors of this book think it improbable that the problem will ever be solved, in the sense that we shall really understand this relation. We think that no more can be expected than to make a little progress here or there. We have written this book in the hope that we have been able to do so. We are conscious of the fact that what we have done is very conjectur­ al and very modest. We are aware of our fallibility; yet we believe in the intrinsic value of every human effort to deepen our understanding of our­ selves and of the world we live in. We believe in humanism: in human rationality, in human science, and in other human achievements, however fallible they are. We are unimpressed by the recurrent intellectual fashions that belittle science and the other great human achievements. An additional motive for writing this book is that we both feel that the debunking of man has gone far enough - even too far. It is said that we had to learn from Copernicus and Darwin that man's place in the universe is not so exalted or so exclusive as man once thought. That may well be.

• Hirnverletzung
• behavior
• biology
• brain
• brain injury
• cerebral cortex
• cortex
• emotion
• evolution
• growth
• intelligence
• interaction
• memory
• perception
• philosophy

• Penn, Buckinghamshire, England

  Karl R. Popper

• Contra (Locarno), Switzerland

  John C. Eccles

Policies and ethics