Interlude

the neurobiological image

pp. 83-86

in: Joseph U. Neisser, The science of subjectivity, Berlin, Springer, 2015

Abstract

In the effort to articulate a conceptually adequate and empirically informed analysis of the first-person structure of experience, Part One focused on philosophy of mind and cognitive science. Part Two now shifts to philosophy of biology and embodiment. What emerges is a sort of neurobiological image of human subjectivity; a neurophilosophy, broadly construed. In the neurobiological image, we are hide-bound animal subjects, neurologically enabled, ecologically situated, and historically conditioned. It seems to me that this neurobiological image is already out there in the zeitgeist. Increasingly, it guides thinking about human life across the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and the culture at large. In the following chapters I place the neurobiological image in a theoretical framework and discuss its implications.