Mindmelding

Philosophy meets neuroscience

by William Hirstein, Ph.D.

What Is a Psychopath?

Psychopaths are uncaring people with shallow emotions who manipulate people with words. The neuroscience of psychopathy has made great strides in the past fifteen years in understanding how the their brains differ from those of normal people. These findings raise deeper questions about human nature and about what steps we might take to "correct" psychopathic individuals. Read More

Why Creationists Should Not Fly on Airplanes

Creationists only intend to disagree with a branch of biology, but because of the massive interconnectedness of science, they are actually disagreeing with a huge portion of contemporary science. Science is also thoroughly interconnected with technology, so that it is not coherent to doubt one and trust the other. Science also has a built in system of checks and balances. Read More

Neuroaesthetics: Responding to the Critics

A new field of inquiry into art, called neuroaesthetics, has produced some strong responses from the art establishment. In this post, William Hirstein responds to seven of the most frequently made criticisms. These include the claims that neuroaesthetics is reductionist, that it cannot capture artistic creativity, and that it cannot explain the diversity of artworks. Read More

Socratic Irony and Neuroscience

Why did the ancient philosopher Socrates so often employ irony, and what can it tell us about him, about the aging brain, about how we understand the minds of other people, and about the phenomenon of conscience? In this entry, recent discoveries in neuroscience are used to shed light on the mysterious behavior of history's most important philosopher. Read More

Ten Tests for Theories of Consciousness

This list comprises a sort of decathlon for theorists of consciousness to test their creations against. Some of the tests might have ‘skeptical solutions’, in that theorists might claim that we were mistaken in thinking that they were relevant to consciousness at all. Read More

Conjoined Twins, Conjoined Brains, But Conjoined Minds?

Krista and Tatiana Hogan are in many ways normal 5-year old twin girls. They like to play with their puppies and watch Dora the Explorer. However, they were born conjoined at the head; their two skulls merge together toward the top. Read More

Three Reasons to Pursue Neuroaesthetics

Despite skepticism from philosophers and the established artworld, the scientific study of how and why we respond to art is well underway. Called "neuroaesthetics", it promises to greatly increase our understanding of this vital yet mysterious human endeavor. Read More

William Hirstein, Ph.D., is author of Mindmelding: Consciousness, Neuroscience, and the Mind’s Privacy, and Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Elmhurst College.

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About Mindmelding

Neuroscience has entered a revolutionary era, where progress in understanding the brain is occuring at a breathtaking pace. Many of their findings are relevant to ancient philosophical questions about the nature of our conscious minds, our sense of self, and our cultures and societies. Neuroscience can thus enlighten philosophy. At the same time, philosophers can enlighten neuroscience with their expertise in introspection, argumentation, and conceptual analysis, along with their vast history of work on the mind.