The Cartesian Brain

This volume presents new research on Cartesian psychophysiology that combines historical and textual analysis with recent advances in contemporary neuroscience research. It seeks to explain why the theory of the Cartesian brain and its communication with the mind still offers a remarkable model for cognitive studies.

Autorentext

Denis Kambouchner is Emeritus Professor of History of Early Modern Philosophy at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. His major publications are devoted to Descartes, and he has also published a number of studies of educational issues.

Damien Lacroux is a post-doctoral researcher in philosophy, currently working at the UNESCO Chair in the Ethics of the Living and the Artificial. He has published several articles in French on Cartesian philosophy and the philosophy of cognitive science.

Tad M. Schmaltz is Professor of Philosophy and James B. and Grace J. Nelson Fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has published several books, book chapters, and articles on various topics in early modern philosophy and the history and philosophy of science.

Ruidan She is a permanent research fellow of the Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. She works on early modern philosophy and contemporary philosophy of action, and is a codirector of the national project, "The Study of the Self and Subjectivity in Western Philosophy."

Inhalt

Foreword Denis Kambouchner 1. Introducing the Cartesian Brain Damien Lacroux, Tad M. Schmaltz, and Ruidan She Part 1: Descartes and His System 2. The Doctrine of the Pineal Gland: A Cryptic Doctrine Franco A. Meschini 3. "Power of the Soul" and Imagination: A Psychophysiological Hypothesis Denis Kambouchner 4. Attribution and Determination: Some Remarks on Voluntary Motion Frédéric de Buzon 5. Descartes's Corporeal Ideas of Distance: Information Processing or Mechanical Correlation? Gary Hatfield 6. The Easiness of Habits: Brain, Freedom, and Conduct of Life in Descartes Louis Rouquayrol 7. Beyond the Brain: Descartes on the Initiation of the Passions and Passionate Responses Ruidan She Part 2: Cartesianism and Its Legacy 8. Descartes's Cardiovascular Science of the Brain Gideon Manning 9. The Pineal Gland in Cartesianism Tad M. Schmaltz 10. The Figure of Descartes in Neuroscience: Relating the Histories of Nerve Physiology, Reflex Action, and Emotions Jean-Gaël Barbara 11. Intellectual Emotion, Passion, and the Relevance of Cartesianism to Cognitive Science Damien Lacroux 12. The Cartesian Brain and the History of Memory Traces Jean-Claude Dupont