text:
Philosophy of Cognitive Science > Philosophy of Neuroscience > History of Neuroscience
Brain Imaging and Localization (361)
Representation in Neuroscience (228)
Explanation in Neuroscience (342)
Reduction in Cognitive Science (393)
Neurophilosophy (435)
Neuroethics (2,409 | 1,455)
Free Will and Neuroscience (366)
Perception and Neuroscience (187)
Consciousness and Neuroscience (2,309 | 796)
Philosophy of Neuroscience, Misc (601)
Law and Neuroscience (28)
Tenure Track Assistant Professor, Philosophy
Klemens von Klemperer Post-Doctoral Fellow
1 — 50 / 73
History of Behavioral Neurology.Sergio Barberis & Cory Wright - forthcoming - Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology.details
This chapter provides a brief overview of the history of behavioral neurology, dividing it roughly into six eras. In the ancient and classical eras, emphasis is placed on two transitions: firstly, from descriptions of head trauma and attempted neurosurgical treatments to the exploratory dissections during the Hellenistic period and the replacement of cardiocentrism; and secondly, to the more systematic investigations of Galenus and the rise of pneumatic ventricular theory. In the medieval through post-Renaissance eras, the scholastic consolidation of knowledge and (...) the role of compendia are emphasized, along with the use of new methods from within a mechanistic framework. With the discovery of electrical conductance and the rise of experimentalism, we frame the modern era as period of intense debate over localization, decomposition, and other mechanistic principles, and marked by rapid discovery about the brain. The chapter ends with a discussion of the contemporary era, focusing on the establishment of behavioral neurology research on aphasia, apraxia, and neuropsychiatric conditions. (shrink)
Behavioral Biology in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Brain Imaging and Localization in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
History of Neuroscience in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
History of Psychology, Misc in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Other Disorders and Syndromes in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Philosophy of Neuroscience, Misc in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Mark Dennis Robinson. The Market in Mind: How Financialization Is Shaping Neuroscience, Translational Medicine, and Innovation in Biotechnology. Xi + 309 Pp., Notes, Bibl., Index. Cambridge, Mass./London: MIT Press, 2019. $40 (Paper); ISBN 9780262536875. [REVIEW]Lianne Habinek - 2021 - Isis 112 (1):213-214.details
Biotechnology Ethics in Applied Ethics
History of Science, Misc in General Philosophy of Science
Philosophy of Medicine, Miscellaneous in Philosophy of Science, Misc
The Death of the Cortical Column? Patchwork Structure and Conceptual Retirement in Neuroscientific Practice.Philipp Haueis - 2021 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 85:101-113.details
In 1981, David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel received the Nobel Prize for their research on cortical columns—vertical bands of neurons with similar functional properties. This success led to the view that "cortical column" refers to the basic building block of the mammalian neocortex. Since the 1990s, however, critics questioned this building block picture of "cortical column" and debated whether this concept is useless and should be replaced with successor concepts. This paper inquires which experimental results after 1981 challenged the building (...) block picture and whether these challenges warrant the elimination "cortical column" from neuroscientific discourse. I argue that the proliferation of experimental techniques led to a patchwork of locally adapted uses of the column concept. Each use refers to a different kind of cortical structure, rather than a neocortical building block. Once we acknowledge this diverse-kinds picture of "cortical column", the elimination of column concept becomes unnecessary. Rather, I suggest that "cortical column" has reached conceptual retirement: although it cannot be used to identify a neocortical building block, column research is still useful as a guide and cautionary tale for ongoing research. At the same time, neuroscientists should search for alternative concepts when studying the functional architecture of the neocortex. keywords: Cortical column, conceptual development, history of neuroscience, patchwork, eliminativism, conceptual retirement. (shrink)
Conceptual Change in Science in General Philosophy of Science
Experimentation in Science in General Philosophy of Science
Scientific Discovery in General Philosophy of Science
How We Became Sensorimotor: Movement, Measurement, Sensation.Mark Paterson - 2021 - Minneapolis, MN, USA: University of Minnesota Press.details
The years between 1833 and 1945 fundamentally transformed science's understanding of the body's inner senses, revolutionizing fields like philosophy, the social sciences, and cognitive science. In How We Became Sensorimotor, Mark Paterson provides a systematic account of this transformative period, while also demonstrating its substantial implications for current explorations into phenomenology, embodied consciousness, the extended mind, and theories of the sensorimotor, the body, and embodiment. -/- Each chapter of How We Became Sensorimotor takes a particular sense and historicizes its formation (...) by means of recent scientific studies, case studies, or coverage in the media. Ranging among a diverse array of sensations, including balance, fatigue, pain, the "muscle sense," and what Maurice Merleau-Ponty termed "motricity," Paterson's analysis moves outward from the familiar confines of the laboratory to those of the industrial world and even to wild animals and their habitats. He uncovers important stories, such as how forgotten pain measurement schemes transformed criminology, or how Penfield's outmoded concepts of the sensory and motor homunculi of the brain still mar psychology textbooks. -/- Complete with original archival research featuring illustrations and correspondence, How We Became Sensorimotor shows how the shifting and sometimes contested historical background to our understandings of the senses are being extended even today. (shrink)
Maurice Merleau-Ponty in Continental Philosophy
Sociology of Science in General Philosophy of Science
$24.00 new $28.00 from Amazon $36.47 used Amazon page
"The Sleeping Beauty of the Brain": Memory, MIT, Montreal, and the Origins of Neuroscience.Yvan Prkachin - 2021 - Isis 112 (1):22-44.details
Biophysics in Philosophy of Physical Science
History of Biology in Philosophy of Biology
Philosophy of Medicine, Misc in Philosophy of Science, Misc
Social Epistemology in Epistemology
New Frontiers in Translational Research: Touchscreens, Open Science, and the Mouse Translational Research Accelerator Platform (MouseTRAP).Jacqueline Anne Sullivan - 2021 - Genes, Brain and Behavior 20 (1):e12705.details
Many neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases and other brain disorders are accompanied by impairments in high-level cognitive functions including memory, attention, motivation, and decision-making. Despite several decades of extensive research, neuroscience is little closer to discovering new treatments. Key impediments include the absence of validated and robust cognitive assessment tools for facilitating translation from animal models to humans. In this review, we describe a state-of-the-art platform poised to overcome these impediments and improve the success of translational research, the Mouse Translational Research (...) Accelerator Platform (MouseTRAP), which is centered on the touchscreen cognitive testing system for rodents. It integrates touchscreen-based tests of high-level cognitive assessment with state-of-the art neurotechnology to record and manipulate molecular and circuit level activity in vivo in animal models during human-relevant cognitive performance. The platform also is integrated with two Open Science platforms designed to facilitate knowledge and data-sharing practices within the rodent touchscreen community, touchscreencognition and mousebytes. Touchscreencognition includes the Wall, showcasing touchscreen news and publications, the Forum, for community discussion, and Training, which includes courses, videos, SOPs, and symposia. To get started, interested researchers simply create user accounts. We describe the origins of the touchscreen testing system, the novel lines of research it has facilitated, and its increasingly widespread use in translational research, which is attributable in part to knowledge-sharing efforts over the past decade. We then identify the unique features of MouseTRAP that stand to potentially revolutionize translational research, and describe new initiatives to partner with similar platforms such as McGill's M3 platform. (shrink)
Freedom and Addiction in Four Discursive Registers: A Comparative Historical Study of Values in Addiction Science.Darin Weinberg - 2021 - History of the Human Sciences 34 (3-4):25-48.details
Mainstream addiction science is today widely marked by an antinomy between a neurologically determinist understanding of the human brain 'hijacked' by the biochemical allure of intoxicants and a liberal voluntarist conception of drug use as a free exercise of choice. Prominent defenders of both discourses strive, ultimately without complete success, to provide accounts that are both universal and value-neutral. This has resulted in a variety of conceptual problems and has undermined the utility of such research for those who seek to (...) therapeutically care for people presumed to suffer from addictions. This article contrasts these two contemporary discourses to two others that played vital historical roles in initiating both scientific and popular concern for addiction. These are the Puritan and civic republican discourses that dominated scholarly discussions of addiction in the early modern era. In each case, the place of values in these discussions is highlighted. By comparing them to their early modern historical antecedents, this article seeks to reflexively explore and develop more intellectually sound and therapeutically relevant alternatives to the troubled attempts at universality and value-neutrality now fettering debates in mainstream addiction science. (shrink)
Compulsion and Addiction in Philosophy of Action
Drug Addiction in Applied Ethics
Science and Values in General Philosophy of Science
Neurobiological Limits and the Somatic Significance of Love: Caregivers' Engagements with Neuroscience in Scottish Parenting Programmes.Tineke Broer, Martyn Pickersgill & Sarah Cunningham-Burley - 2020 - History of the Human Sciences 33 (5):85-109.details
While parents have long received guidance on how to raise children, a relatively new element of this involves explicit references to infant brain development, drawing on brain scans and neuroscientific knowledge. Sometimes called 'brain-based parenting', this has been criticised from within sociological and policy circles alike. However, the engagement of parents themselves with neuroscientific concepts is far less researched. Drawing on 22 interviews with parents/carers of children living in Scotland, this article examines how they account for their use of concepts (...) and understandings relating to neuroscience. Three normative tropes were salient: information about children's processing speed, evidence about deprived Romanian orphans in the 1990s, and ideas relating to whether or not children should 'self-settle' when falling asleep. We interrogate how parents reflexively weigh and judge such understandings and ideas. In some cases, neuroscientific knowledge was enrolled by parents in ways that supported biologically reductionist models of childhood agency. This reductionism commonly had generative effects, enjoining new care practices and producing particular parent and infant subjectivities. Notably, parents do not uncritically adopt or accept neurobiological and/or psychological knowledge; rather, they reflect on whether and when it is applicable to and relevant for raising their children. Thus, our respondents draw on everyday epistemologies of parenting to negotiate brain-based understandings of infant development and behaviour, and invest meaning in these in ways that cannot be fully anticipated within straightforward celebrations or critiques of the content of parenting programmes drawing on neuropsychological ideas. (shrink)
Parenthood in Applied Ethics
Philosophy of Love in Philosophy of Gender, Race, and Sexuality
Ben Barres. The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist. Foreword by Nancy Hopkins. Xviii + 142 Pp., Notes, Index. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2018. $21.95 (Cloth). ISBN 9780262039116. [REVIEW]Heather Ellis - 2020 - Isis 111 (2):436-436.details
Transgender Issues in Philosophy of Gender, Race, and Sexuality
The Dynamical Renaissance in Neuroscience.Luis H. Favela - 2020 - Synthese 1 (1):1-25.details
Although there is a substantial philosophical literature on dynamical systems theory in the cognitive sciences, the same is not the case for neuroscience. This paper attempts to motivate increased discussion via a set of overlapping issues. The first aim is primarily historical and is to demonstrate that dynamical systems theory is currently experiencing a renaissance in neuroscience. Although dynamical concepts and methods are becoming increasingly popular in contemporary neuroscience, the general approach should not be viewed as something entirely new to (...) neuroscience. Instead, it is more appropriate to view the current developments as making central again approaches that facilitated some of neuroscience's most significant early achievements, namely, the Hodgkin–Huxley and FitzHugh–Nagumo models. The second aim is primarily critical and defends a version of the "dynamical hypothesis" in neuroscience. Whereas the original version centered on defending a noncomputational and nonrepresentational account of cognition, the version I have in mind is broader and includes both cognition and the neural systems that realize it as well. In view of that, I discuss research on motor control as a paradigmatic example demonstrating that the concepts and methods of dynamical systems theory are increasingly and successfully being applied to neural systems in contemporary neuroscience. More significantly, such applications are motivating a stronger metaphysical claim, that is, understanding neural systems as being dynamical systems, which includes not requiring appeal to representations to explain or understand those phenomena. Taken together, the historical claim and the critical claim demonstrate that the dynamical hypothesis is undergoing a renaissance in contemporary neuroscience. (shrink)
Computationalism in Cognitive Science in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Dynamical Systems in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Explanation in Neuroscience in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Representation in Neuroscience in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Scientific Models in General Philosophy of Science
Goltz Against Cerebral Localization: Methodology and Experimental Practices.J. P. Gamboa - 2020 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 84:101304.details
In the late 19th century, physiologists such as David Ferrier, Eduard Hitzig, and Hermann Munk argued that cerebral brain functions are localized in discrete structures. By the early 20th century, this became the dominant position. However, another prominent physiologist, Friedrich Goltz, rejected theories of cerebral localization and argued against these physiologists until his death in 1902. I argue in this paper that previous historical accounts have failed to comprehend why Goltz rejected cerebral localization. I show that Goltz adhered to a (...) falsificationist methodology, and I reconstruct how he designed his experiments and weighted different kinds of evidence. I then draw on the exploratory experimentation literature from recent philosophy of science to trace one root of the debate to differences in how the German localizers designed their experiments and reasoned about evidence. While Goltz designed his experiments to test hypotheses about the functions of predetermined cerebral structures, the localizers explored new functions and structures in the process of constructing new theories. I argue that the localizers relied on untested background conjectures to justify their inferences about functional organization. These background conjectures collapsed a distinction between phenomena they produced direct evidence for (localized symptoms) and what they reached conclusions about (localized functions). (shrink)
Cybernetic Times: Norbert Wiener, John Stroud, and the 'Brain Clock' Hypothesis.Henning Schmidgen - 2020 - History of the Human Sciences 33 (1):80-108.details
In 1955, Norbert Wiener suggested a sociological model according to which all forms of culture ultimately depended on the temporal coordination of human activities, in particular their synchronization. The basis for Wiener's model was provided by his insights into the temporal structures of cerebral processes. This article reconstructs the historical context of Wiener's 'brain clock' hypothesis, largely via his dialogues with John W. Stroud and other scholars working at the intersection of neurophysiology, experimental psychology, and electrical engineering. Since the 19th (...) century, physiologists and psychologists have been conducting experimental investigations into the relation between time and the brain. Using innovative instruments and technologies, Stroud rehearsed these experiments, in part without paying any attention at all to the experimental traditions involved. Against this background, this article argues that the novelty of Wiener's model relies largely on his productive rephrasing of physiological and psychological findings that had been established long before the Second World War. (shrink)
Cybernetics in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Time and Consciousness in Psychology in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Wiring Optimization Explanation in Neuroscience: What is Special About It?Sergio Daniel Barberis - 2019 - Theoria : An International Journal for Theory, History and Fundations of Science 1 (34):89-110.details
This paper examines the explanatory distinctness of wiring optimization models in neuroscience. Wiring optimization models aim to represent the organizational features of neural and brain systems as optimal (or near-optimal) solutions to wiring optimization problems. My claim is that that wiring optimization models provide design explanations. In particular, they support ideal interventions on the decision variables of the relevant design problem and assess the impact of such interventions on the viability of the target system.
The History of the Brain and Mind Sciences.Alfred Freeborn - 2019 - History of the Human Sciences 32 (3):145-154.details
This review article critically surveys the following literature by placing it under the historiographical banner of 'the history of the brain and mind sciences': Fernando Vidal and Francisco Ortega, Being Brains: Making the Cerebral Subject ; Katja Guenther, Localization and its Discontents: A Genealogy of Psychoanalysis & the Neuro Disciplines ; Stephen Casper and Delia Gavrus, The History of the Brain and Mind Sciences: Technique, Technology, Therapy ; Jonna Brenninkmeijer, Neurotechnologies of the Self: Mind, Brain and Subjectivity. This framework highlights (...) contemporary attempts to historicize the integrative project of neuroscience and set the correct limits to interdisciplinary collaboration. While attempts to critically engage with the 'neuro' rhetoric of contemporary neuroscientists can seem at odds with historians seeking to write the history of neuroscience from the margins, it is argued that together these two projects represent a positive historiographical direction for the history of the neurosciences after the decade of the brain. (shrink)
History of Cognitive Science in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Consciousness Science Underdetermined: A Short History of Endless Debates.Matthias Michel - 2019 - Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 6.details
Consciousness scientists have not reached consensus on two of the most central questions in their field: first, on whether consciousness overflows reportability; second, on the physical basis of consciousness. I review the scientific literature of the 19th century to provide evidence that disagreement on these questions has been a feature of the scientific study of consciousness for a long time. Based on this historical review, I hypothesize that a unifying explanation of disagreement on these questions, up to this day, is (...) that scientific theories of consciousness are underdetermined by the evidence, namely, that they can be preserved "come what may" in front of (seemingly) disconfirming evidence. Consciousness scientists may have to find a way of solving the persistent underdetermination of theories of consciousness to make further progress. (shrink)
History of Psychology in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Neural Correlates of Visual Consciousness in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Science of Consciousness, Foundations in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
On 'Modified Human Agents': John Lilly and the Paranoid Style in American Neuroscience.Charlie Williams - 2019 - History of the Human Sciences 32 (5):84-107.details
The personal papers of the neurophysiologist John C. Lilly at Stanford University hold a classified paper he wrote in the late 1950s on the behavioural modification and control of 'human agents'. The paper provides an unnerving prognosis of the future application of Lilly's research, then being carried out at the National Institute of Mental Health. Lilly claimed that the use of sensory isolation, electrostimulation of the brain, and the recording and mapping of brain activity could be used to gain 'push-button' (...) control over motivation and behaviour. This research, wrote Lilly, could eventually lead to 'master-slave controls directly of one brain over another'. The paper is an explicit example of Lilly's preparedness to align his research towards Cold War military aims. It is not, however, the research for which Lilly is best known. During the 1960s and 1970s, Lilly developed cult status as a far-out guru of consciousness exploration, promoting the use of psychedelics and sensory isolation tanks. Lilly argued that, rather than being used as tools of brainwashing, these techniques could be employed by the individual to regain control of their own mind and retain a sense of agency over their thoughts and actions. This article examines the scientific, intellectual, and cultural relationship between the sciences of brainwashing and psychedelic mind alteration. Through an analysis of Lilly's autobiographical writings, I also show how paranoid ideas about brainwashing and mind control provide an important lens for understanding the trajectory of Lilly's research. (shrink)
Agency in Philosophy of Action
Control and Consciousness in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Cajal's Law of Dynamic Polarization: Mechanism and Design.Sergio Barberis - 2018 - Philosophies 3 (2):11-0.details
The Structured Uses of Concepts as Tools: Comparing fMRI Experiments That Investigate Either Mental Imagery or Hallucinations.Eden T. Smith - 2018 - Dissertation, University of Melbournedetails
Sensations can occur in the absence of perception and yet be experienced 'as if' seen, heard, tasted, or otherwise perceived. Two concepts used to investigate types of these sensory-like mental phenomena (SLMP) are mental imagery and hallucinations. Mental imagery is used as a concept for investigating those SLMP that merely resemble perception in some way. Meanwhile, the concept of hallucinations is used to investigate those SLMP that are, in some sense, compellingly like perception. This may be a difference of degree. (...) Attempts to reliably differentiate between instances of each type of SLMP remain unresolved. Despite this, the concepts of mental imagery and hallucinations are each routinely used independently of the other. These uses are especially interesting in those published accounts of experiments where equivalent findings about the neuroanatomical correlates of SLMP are reported in support of diverging knowledge-claims about the role of SLMP in neurocognitive processes. This practice presents a puzzle. To examine one aspect of this puzzle, I compare the uses of these two scientific concepts in three ways: examining their roles in differentiating between types of SLMP; exploring how their respective historical developments intersect; and analysing their contributions in neuroimaging experiments. In presenting this series of comparative analyses, I will draw on three themes from historical, philosophical, and social studies of scientific practices: interest in material contributions to knowledge; accounts of how concepts are used in experiments; and explorations of the historical conditions within which current practices emerge. Building on this literature, my comparative analyses supports five related claims. My first claim is that the concepts of mental imagery and hallucinations are each used as independent tools in neuroimaging experiments. My second claim is that, as experimental tools, the concepts of mental imagery and hallucinations are each used for investigating discrete epistemic goals. My third claim is that there are implicit interdependent associations that structure the uses of these two concepts as tools for independently investigating these discrete epistemic goals in neuroimaging experiments. This third claim rests on my analyses of both past and present uses of each concept. Firstly, as seen in their intersecting histories, there are disciplined performances of using the concepts of mental imagery and hallucinations that carry-along shared associations about the mediating role of SLMP in thought. Secondly, these interdependent 'mediator-view' associations continue to structure the independent uses of each concept as a tool for investigating SLMP in pursuit of specific goals. Taking this further, my fourth claim is that recognising the structured uses of the concepts of mental imagery and hallucinations can help to account for how equivalent SLMP-neuro-correlates are generated in support of diverging knowledge-claims. Finally, my fifth claim is that the structured uses of these concepts as tools can contribute to experiments in ways analogous to, yet not equivalent with, the active contributions of material instruments. Bringing these claims together, I argue that the concepts of mental imagery and hallucinations operate as structured tools that can actively contribute to the knowledge generated by neuroimaging experiments. In presenting this argument I seek to demonstrate that examining the structured uses of concepts as tools can complement existing approaches to studying how the heterogeneous dynamics of experimental practices can come to contribute to scientific knowledge in unintended ways. (shrink)
Scientific Practice in General Philosophy of Science
Interdependent Concepts and Their Independent Uses: Mental Imagery and Hallucinations.Eden T. Smith - 2018 - Perspectives on Science 26 (3):360-399.details
The scientific concepts of mental imagery and hallucinations are each used independently of the other; uses that simultaneously evoke and obscure their historical connections. In this paper, I aim to illustrate the relevance of examining one of these historical connections for studying the current uses of these two concepts in neuroimaging experiments. To this end, I will highlight interdependent associations within the histories of each of the concepts that continue to contribute to their independent uses.That mental imagery and hallucinations are (...) used independently of each other is evident in the way that each concept influences investigations in isolation of the other. Within the neurosciences, mental imagery is... (shrink)
Eppur Si Muove: Doing History and Philosophy of Science with Peter Machamer: A Collection of Essays in Honor of Peter Machamer.Marcus P. Adams, Zvi Biener, Uljana Feest & Jacqueline Anne Sullivan (eds.) - 2017 - Dordrecht: Springer.details
This volume is a collection of original essays focusing on a wide range of topics in the History and Philosophy of Science. It is a festschrift for Peter Machamer, which includes contributions from scholars who, at one time or another, were his students. The essays bring together analyses of issues and debates spanning from early modern science and philosophy through the 21st century. Machamer's influence is reflected in the volume's broad range of topics. These include: underdetermination, scientific practice, scientific models, (...) mechanistic explanation in contemporary and historical science, values in science, the relationship between philosophy and psychology, experimentation, supervenience and reductionism. (shrink)
17th/18th Century British Philosophy in 17th/18th Century Philosophy
History of Physics in Philosophy of Physical Science
Mechanistic Explanation in General Philosophy of Science
Theories of Explanation in General Philosophy of Science
Hughlings Jackson and the "doctrine of concomitance": mind-brain theorising between metaphysics and the clinic.M. Chirimuuta - 2017 - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 39 (3):26.details
John Hughlings Jackson is a major figure at the origins of neurology and neuroscience in Britain. Alongside his contributions to clinical medicine, he left a large corpus of writing on localisation of function in the nervous system and other theoretical topics. In this paper I focus on Jackson's "doctrine of concomitance"—his parallelist theory of the mind-brain relationship. I argue that the doctrine can be given both an ontological and a causal interpretation, and that the causal aspect of the doctrine is (...) especially significant for Jackson and his contemporaries. I interpret Jackson's engagement with the metaphysics of mind as an instance of what I call meta-science—the deployment by scientists of metaphysical positions and arguments which help streamline empirical investigations by bracketing off unanswerable questions and focussing attention on matters amenable to the current tools of experimental research. (shrink)
Descartes: New Thoughts on the Senses.Gary Hatfield - 2017 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 25 (3):443-464.details
Descartes analysed the mind into various faculties or powers, including pure intellect, imagination, senses, and will. This article focuses on his account of the sensory power, in relation to its Aristotelian background. Descartes accepted from the Aristotelians that the senses serve to preserve the body by detecting benefits and harms. He rejected the scholastic Aristotelian sensory ontology of resembling species, or 'forms without matter'. For the visual sense, Descartes offered a mechanistic ontology and a partially mechanized account of sensory processes, (...) including some previously ascribed to judgement. He did this in the context of his theory of brain signs that prompt sensations. The article contends that Descartes's use of the sign-relation was modelled on standard discussions of non-resembling signs in commentaries on Aristotle's De interpretatione. It follows three uses of the sign-relation: brain states that cause colour sensations; brain states that cause experiences of spatialized contents, such as shapes; and brain states that realize a 'natural geometry'. It argues that Descartes's natural geometry does not involve mental operations but physiological mechanisms that co-vary with the distance to seen objects. While retaining the language of sensory powers, Descartes offered a partial mechanization of those powers. (shrink)
Early Modern Scholasticism in 17th/18th Century Philosophy
René Descartes in 17th/18th Century Philosophy
Sensation and Perception in Philosophy of Mind
Is Empiricism Empirically False? Lessons From Early Nervous Systems.Marcin Miłkowski - 2017 - Biosemiotics 10 (2):229-245.details
Recent work on skin-brain thesis suggests the possibility of empirical evidence that empiricism is false. It implies that early animals need no traditional sensory receptors to be engaged in cognitive activity. The neural structure required to coordinate extensive sheets of contractile tissue for motility provides the starting point for a new multicellular organized form of sensing. Moving a body by muscle contraction provides the basis for a multicellular organization that is sensitive to external surface structure at the scale of the (...) animal body. In other words, the nervous system first evolved for action, not for receiving sensory input. Thus, sensory input is not required for minimal cognition; only action is. The whole body of an organism, in particular its highly specific animal sensorimotor organization, reflects the bodily and environmental spatiotemporal structure. The skin-brain thesis suggests that, in contrast to empiricist claims that cognition is constituted by sensory systems, cognition may be also constituted by action-oriented feedback mechanisms. Instead of positing the reflex arc as the elementary building block of nervous systems, it proposes that endogenous motor activity is crucial for cognitive processes. In the paper, I discuss the issue whether the skin-brain thesis and its supporting evidence can be really used to overthrow the main tenet of empiricism empirically, by pointing out to cognizing agents that fail to have any sensory apparatus. (shrink)
Empiricism, Misc in Metaphilosophy
Neuroscience in Cognitive Sciences
Remove from this list Direct download (10 more)
Mechanisms and the Mental.Marcin Miłkowski - 2017 - In Stuart S. Glennan & Phyllis Illari (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Mechanisms and Mechanical Philosophy. Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group). pp. 74--88.details
In this chapter, I sketch the history of mechanistic models of the mental, as related to the technological project of trying to build mechanical minds, and discuss the contemporary debates on psychological and cognitive explanations. In the first section, I introduce the Cartesian notion of mechanism, which has shaped the debate in the centuries to follow. Early mechanistic proposals are also connected with early attempts to formulate the computational account of thinking and reasoning, upheld notably by Hobbes and Leibniz. In (...) the second section, associationist and behaviorist models of the mind are sketched, along with attempts to understand the neural system in terms of connections and associations. Early robotic models, built mostly by behaviorists and other students of animal behavior, are also introduced. In the third section, the focus is on early computational and cybernetic models of the mind. In the fourth section, I deal with computational models of mental mechanisms as proposed by students of artificial intelligence and cognitive science. Then, I sketch the contemporary debate over the question whether computational and psychological models are best understood as offering functional, or maybe mechanistic explanations. (shrink)
Materialism and 'the Soft Substance of the Brain': Diderot and Plasticity.Charles T. Wolfe - 2017 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 25 (5):963-982.details
ABSTRACTMaterialism is the view that everything that is real is material or is the product of material processes. It tends to take either a 'cosmological' form, as a claim about the ultimate nature of the world, or a more specific 'psychological' form, detailing how mental processes are brain processes. I focus on the second, psychological or cerebral form of materialism. In the mid-to-late eighteenth century, the French materialist philosopher Denis Diderot was one of the first to notice that any self-respecting (...) materialist had to address the question of the status and functional role of the brain, and its relation to our mental life. After this the topic grew stale, with knee-jerk reiterations of 'psychophysical identity' in the nineteenth-century, and equally rigid assertions of anti-materialism. In 1960s philosophy of mind, brain–mind materialism reemerged as 'identity theory', focusing on the identity between mental processes and cerebral processes. In contrast, Diderot's cerebral materialism allows... (shrink)
HIT and Brain Reward Function: A Case of Mistaken Identity (Theory).Cory Wright, Matteo Colombo & Alexander Beard - 2017 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 64:28–40.details
This paper employs a case study from the history of neuroscience—brain reward function—to scrutinize the inductive argument for the so-called 'Heuristic Identity Theory' (HIT). The case fails to support HIT, illustrating why other case studies previously thought to provide empirical support for HIT also fold under scrutiny. After distinguishing two different ways of understanding the types of identity claims presupposed by HIT and considering other conceptual problems, we conclude that HIT is not an alternative to the traditional identity theory so (...) much as a relabeling of previously discussed strategies for mechanistic discovery. (shrink)
Criteria of Identity in Metaphysics
Interlevel Relations in Cognitive Science, Misc in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
L'Homme in Psychology and Neuroscience.Gary Hatfield - 2016 - In Stephen Gaukroger & Delphine Antoine-Mahut (eds.), Descartes' Treatise on Man and Its Reception. New York: Springer. pp. 269–285.details
L'Homme presents what has been termed Descartes' "physiological psychology". It envisions and seeks to explain how the brain and nerves might yield situationally appropriate behavior through mechanical means. On occasion in the past 150 years, this aim has been recognized, described, and praised. Still, acknowledgement of this aspect of Descartes' writing has been spotty in histories of neuroscience and histories of psychology. In recent years, there has been something of a resurgence. This chapter argues that, in seeking to explain psychological (...) functions such as sense perception, attention, memory, and emotional response, Descartes ascribed a range of active functions to the brain acting on its own (independently of mind). (shrink)
The Life of the Cortical Column: Opening the Domain of Functional Architecture of the Cortex.Haueis Philipp - 2016 - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 38 (3).details
The concept of the cortical column refers to vertical cell bands with similar response properties, which were initially observed by Vernon Mountcastle's mapping of single cell recordings in the cat somatic cortex. It has subsequently guided over 50 years of neuroscientific research, in which fundamental questions about the modularity of the cortex and basic principles of sensory information processing were empirically investigated. Nevertheless, the status of the column remains controversial today, as skeptical commentators proclaim that the vertical cell bands are (...) a functionally insignificant by-product of ontogenetic development. This paper inquires how the column came to be viewed as an elementary unit of the cortex from Mountcastle's discovery in 1955 until David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel's reception of the Nobel Prize in 1981. I first argue that Mountcastle's vertical electrode recordings served as criteria for applying the column concept to electrophysiological data. In contrast to previous authors, I claim that this move from electrophysiological data to the phenomenon of columnar responses was concept-laden, but not theory-laden. In the second part of the paper, I argue that Mountcastle's criteria provided Hubel Wiesel with a conceptual outlook, i.e. it allowed them to anticipate columnar patterns in the cat and macaque visual cortex. I argue that in the late 1970s, this outlook only briefly took a form that one could call a 'theory' of the cerebral cortex, before new experimental techniques started to diversify column research. I end by showing how this account of early column research fits into a larger project that follows the conceptual development of the column into the present. (shrink)
Interlevel Relations in Biology in Philosophy of Biology
Long-Term Potentiation: One Kind or Many?Jacqueline Sullivan - 2016 - In Eppur Si Muove: Doing History and Philosophy of Science with Peter Machamer, A Collection of Essays in Honor of Peter Machamer. Springer Verlag. pp. 127-140.details
Do neurobiologists aim to discover natural kinds? I address this question in this chapter via a critical analysis of classification practices operative across the 43-year history of research on long-term potentiation (LTP). I argue that this 43-year history supports the idea that the structure of scientific practice surrounding LTP research has remained an obstacle to the discovery of natural kinds.
Models, Mechanisms, and Coherence.Matteo Colombo, Stephan Hartmann & Robert van Iersel - 2015 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 66 (1):181-212.details
Life-science phenomena are often explained by specifying the mechanisms that bring them about. The new mechanistic philosophers have done much to substantiate this claim and to provide us with a better understanding of what mechanisms are and how they explain. Although there is disagreement among current mechanists on various issues, they share a common core position and a seeming commitment to some form of scientific realism. But is such a commitment necessary? Is it the best way to go about mechanistic (...) explanation? In this article, we propose an alternative antirealist account that also fits explanatory practice in the life sciences. We pay special attention to mechanistic models, i.e. scientific models that involve a mechanism, and to the role of coherence considerations in building such models. To illustrate our points, we consider the mechanism for the action potential. 1 Introduction2 Some Core Features of Mechanistic Explanation3 Scientific Realism and Mechanistic Explanation4 Antirealist Mechanistic Explanation: The Case of the Action Potential5 Some Outstanding Issues for the Antirealist Mechanist6 Two Problems for the Realist Mechanist7 Conclusions. (shrink)
Standard Scientific Realism in General Philosophy of Science
The Birth of Information in the Brain: Edgar Adrian and the Vacuum Tube.Justin Garson - 2015 - Science in Context 28 (1):31-52.details
As historian Henning Schmidgen notes, the scientific study of the nervous system would have been "unthinkable" without the industrialization of communication in the 1830s. Historians have investigated extensively the way nerve physiologists have borrowed concepts and tools from the field of communications, particularly regarding the nineteenth-century work of figures like Helmholtz and in the American Cold War Era. The following focuses specifically on the interwar research of the Cambridge physiologist Edgar Douglas Adrian, and on the technology that led to his (...) Nobel-Prize-winning research, the thermionic vacuum tube. Many countries used the vacuum tube during the war for the purpose of amplifying and intercepting coded messages. These events provided a context for Adrian's evolving understanding of the nerve fiber in the 1920s. In particular, they provide the background for Adrian's transition around 1926 to describing the nerve impulse in terms of "information," "messages," "signals," or even "codes," and for translating the basic principles of the nerve, such as the all-or-none principle and adaptation, into such an "informational" context. The following also places Adrian's research in the broader context of the changing relationship between science and technology, and between physics and physiology, in the first few decades of the twentieth century. (shrink)
Natural Geometry in Descartes and Kepler.Gary Hatfield - 2015 - Res Philosophica 92 (1):117-148.details
According to Kepler and Descartes, the geometry of the triangle formed by the two eyes when focused on a single point affords perception of the distance to that point. Kepler characterized the processes involved as associative learning. Descartes described the processes as a " natural geometry." Many interpreters have Descartes holding that perceivers calculate the distance to the focal point using angle-side-angle, calculations that are reduced to unnoticed mental habits in adult vision. This article offers a purely psychophysiological interpretation of (...) Descartes's natural geometry. In his account of perceived limb position from the Treatise on Man, he envisioned a central brain state that controls ocular convergence and thereby co-varies with the distance from observer to object. A psychophysiological law relates the visual perception of distance to this brain state. Descartes also invokes more traditional theories of distance and size perception based on unnoticed judgments, yielding a hybrid account. (shrink)
Spatial Experience in Philosophy of Mind
Vision in Philosophy of Mind
On a Not so Chance Encounter of Neurophilosophy and Science Studies in a Sleep Laboratory.Nicolas Langlitz - 2015 - History of the Human Sciences 28 (4):3-24.details
This article was inspired by participant observation of a contemporary collaboration between empirically oriented philosophers of mind and neuroscientists. An encounter between this anthropologist of science and neurophilosophers in a Finnish sleep laboratory led to the following philosophical exploration of the intellectual space shared by neurophilosophy and science studies. Since these fields emerged in the 1970s, scholars from both sides have been visiting brain research facilities, but engaged with neuroscientists very differently and passionately fought with each other over the reduction (...) of mind to brain. As a case in point, this article looks at the philosophical controversy over the dreaming brain. It serves as a window on the problem space opened up by the demise of positivist conceptions of science, now inhabited by both neurophilosophy and science studies. Both fields face the problem of how to bridge the gap between empirical research and conceptual work. At a time when ontological speculation has made a comeback in these areas of research, studies on how epistemic objects manifest themselves in the material culture of neuroscience could help neurophilosophers to become better materialists. In the sleep laboratory, however, the materiality of dreams continues to be elusive. In dreaming science studies and neurophilosophy encounter a phenomenon that – at least in 2015 – still invites a positivist rather than a materialist attitude. (shrink)
Consciousness and Materialism in Philosophy of Mind
Dreams in Philosophy of Mind
Neurophilosophy in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Positivism, Misc in Metaphilosophy
Science of Consciousness in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Book Review: Genes, Cells and Brains: The Promethean Promises of the New Biology and Bio-Objects: Life in the 21st Century. [REVIEW]Nadine Levin - 2015 - History of the Human Sciences 28 (1):144-152.details
Genes, Cells and Brains: The Promethean Promises of the New Biology Hillary Rose & Stephen Rose, Genes, Cells and Brains: The Promethean Promises of the New Biology. London and New York: Verso Books, 2014. ISBN-10: 178168314X (paperback). 336 pp. -/- Bio-Objects: Life in the 21st Century Niki Vermeulen, Sakari Tamminen & Andrew Webster (eds) Bio-Objects: Life in the 21st Century. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2012. ISBN: 978-1-4094-1178-9 (hardback). 240 pp.
Biomedical Ethics in Applied Ethics
Genetics and Molecular Biology in Philosophy of Biology
History and Neuroscience: An Integrative Legacy.Stephen T. Casper - 2014 - Isis 105 (1):123-132.details
The attitudes that characterize the contemporary "neuro-turn" were strikingly commonplace as part of the self-fashioning of social identity in the biographies and personal papers of past neurologists and neuroscientists. Indeed, one fundamental connection between nineteenth- and twentieth-century neurology and contemporary neuroscience appears to be the value that workers in both domains attach to the idea of integration, a vision of neural science and medicine that connected reductionist science to broader inquiries about the mind, brain, and human nature and in so (...) doing supposedly resolved once and for all questions germane to the human sciences, humanities, and arts. How those attitudes were produced and reproduced first in neurology and then in neuroscience; in what way they were constructed and disciplined, thereby eventuating in the contested sciences and medicines of the mind, brain, and nervous system; and even how they garnered ever-wider contemporary purchase in cultures and societies are thus fascinating problems for historians of science and medicine. Such problems shed light on ethics, practices, controversies, and the uneasy social relations within those scientific and medical domains. But more to the point of this essay: they also account for the apparent epistemological weight now accorded "the neuro" in our contemporary moment. They thus illuminate in a rather different way why historians have suddenly discovered the value of "the neuro.". (shrink)
Deep and Beautiful. The Reward Prediction Error Hypothesis of Dopamine.Matteo Colombo - 2014 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 45 (1):57-67.details
According to the reward-prediction error hypothesis of dopamine, the phasic activity of dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain signals a discrepancy between the predicted and currently experienced reward of a particular event. It can be claimed that this hypothesis is deep, elegant and beautiful, representing one of the largest successes of computational neuroscience. This paper examines this claim, making two contributions to existing literature. First, it draws a comprehensive historical account of the main steps that led to the formulation and subsequent (...) success of the RPEH. Second, in light of this historical account, it explains in which sense the RPEH is explanatory and under which conditions it can be justifiably deemed deeper than the incentive salience hypothesis of dopamine, which is arguably the most prominent contemporary alternative to the RPEH. (shrink)
Mental Disorders in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Emil du Bois-Reymond on "The Seat of the Soul".Gabriel Finkelstein - 2014 - Journal of the History of the Neurosciences 23 (1):45-55.details
The German pioneer of electrophysiology, Emil du Bois-Reymond (1818–1896), is generally assumed to have remained silent on the subject of the brain. However, the archive of his papers in Berlin contains manuscript notes to a lecture on "The Seat of the Soul" that he delivered to popular audiences in 1884 and 1885. These notes demonstrate that cerebral localization and brain function in general had been concerns of his for quite some time, and that he did not shy away from these (...) subjects. (shrink)
Consciousness and Neuroscience, Foundational Issues in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Neuroscience, Neurohistory, and the History of Science: A Tale of Two Brain Images.Steve Fuller - 2014 - Isis 105 (1):100-109.details
This essay introduces a Focus section on "Neurohistory and History of Science" by distinguishing images of the brain as governor and as transducer: the former treat the brain as the executive control center of the body, the latter as an interface between the organism and reality at large. Most of the consternation expressed in the symposium about the advent of neurohistory derives from the brain-as-governor conception, which is rooted in a "biologistic" understanding of humanity that in recent years has become (...) bound up in various nefarious "neoliberal" political and economic agendas. However, given the sophisticated attitude that neurohistory's leading champion, Daniel Smail, displays toward evolutionary theory's potential impact on historical practice, he is perhaps better understood as part of the brain-as-transducer tradition. This tradition, largely suppressed in current representations of neuroscience, has a strong theological provenance, ultimately concerned with our becoming attuned to the divine frequency, not least by extending the powers of the human nervous system through technology. This essay sympathetically explores the implications of this perspective for historical practice. (shrink)
History in Social Sciences
Philosophy of History in Philosophy of Social Science
Activity and Passivity in Theories of Perception: Descartes to Kant.Gary Hatfield - 2014 - In José Filipe Silva & Mikko Yrjönsuuri (eds.), Active Perception in the History of Philosophy: From Plato to Modern Philosophy. Springer. pp. 275–89.details
In the early modern period, many authors held that sensation or sensory reception is in some way passive and that perception is in some way active. The notion of a more passive and a more active aspect of perception is already present in Aristotle: the senses receive forms without matter more or less passively, but the "primary sense" also recognizes the salience of present objects. Ibn al-Haytham distinguished "pure sensation" from other aspects of sense perception, achieved by "discernment, inference and (...) recognition," which included perception of properties such as size and distance as well as similarity, difference, and beauty. Descartes regarded light and color as experiences passively caused in the mind by bodily processes, but he also included distance, perceived through accommodation and convergence, as an immediately caused sensory idea. On the perception side, most theorists held that size and distance perception occurs through unnoticed psychological operations, whether mediated by judgment or associative processes. Association is, in a sense, passive, as it occurs through nonreflective habit formation. But such habits mark a contribution of the subject to perception and are in that way active. The decision of whether sensation and perception are active or passive is highly sensitive to what counts as activity and to what is included as sensation or perception. There is no simple formula, but the generalization that sensation is for the most part passive and perception for the most part active may stand as an imprecise summary of early modern thought on the topic. (shrink)
Aristotle: Perception in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy
Perception and the Mind, Misc in Philosophy of Mind
$99.99 used $114.13 new (collection) Amazon page
Cartesian Psychology of Antoine Le Grand.Gary Hatfield - 2014 - In Mihnea Dobre & Tammy Nyden (eds.), Cartesian Empiricisms. Springer. pp. 251-274.details
In the Aristotelian curriculum, De anima or the study of the soul fell under the rubric of physics. This area of study covered the vital ("vegetative"), sensitive, and rational powers of the soul. Descartes' substance dualism restricted reason or intellect, and conscious sensation, to human minds. Having denied mind to nonhuman animals, Descartes was required to explain all animal behavior using material mechanisms possessing only the properties of size, shape, position, and motion. Within the framework of certainty provided by the (...) metaphysical foundations of his physics, he posited such mechanisms in accordance with appropriately lessened standards of certainty. As Cartesianism (or the Cartesian revolution) spread, adherents offered survey textbooks or treatises of physics to replace the corresponding Aristotelian curriculum. These books typically discussed the role of experience in physics and the appropriate standard of certainty. A comprehensive Cartesian natural philosophy needed to mechanize the offices of the Aristotelian sensitive soul, including sense perception, memory, and cognitive and appetitive responses to the environment. Descartes' Treatise on Man (1664) offered an initial explanatory program. This chapter examines the role of experience in the natural philosophy and mechanistic psychology of Descartes' English follower Antoine Le Grand. He offered detailed accounts of the sensory and motor mechanisms shared by human and nonhuman animals (for which he claimed "physical certainty"). These frame his Cartesian psychology. (shrink)
Animal Minds, Misc in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Scientific Method, Miscellaneous in General Philosophy of Science
$119.99 new $140.89 used (collection) Amazon page
Das hören des Cochlea Implantats.Robert Stock & Beate Ochsner - 2014 - Paragrana: Internationale Zeitschrift für Historische Anthropologie 22 (3):408-424.details
The contribution analyses (self-)descriptions of hearing experiences articulated by cochlear implant (CI) users through internet blogs. These auto-medial testimonies (Dünne/Moser) are understood as elements of an individuation process that reciprocally produces the CI-user as well as the CI itself. The analysis therefore focuses on those acoustic effects that are established by the CI, its first activation and the further mapping or adaptation processes as well as early CI-hearing experiences and subsequent listening exercises. It can thus be shown how the cultural (...) practice of hearing/non-hearing is produced within a specific socio-technical arrangement. (shrink)
Anthropology in Social Sciences
Hearing in Philosophy of Mind
Music in Arts and Humanities
Sound in Philosophy of Mind
Deep and Beautiful. The Reward Prediction Error Hypothesis of Dopamine.Matteo Colombo - 2013 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 45:57-67.details
According to the reward-prediction error hypothesis (RPEH) of dopamine, the phasic activity of dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain signals a discrepancy between the predicted and currently experienced reward of a particular event. It can be claimed that this hypothesis is deep, elegant and beautiful, representing one of the largest successes of computational neuroscience. This paper examines this claim, making two contributions to existing literature. First, it draws a comprehensive historical account of the main steps that led to the formulation and (...) subsequent success of the RPEH. Second, in light of this historical account, it explains in which sense the RPEH is explanatory and under which conditions it can be justifiably deemed deeper than the incentive salience hypothesis of dopamine, which is arguably the most prominent contemporary alternative to the RPEH. (shrink)
Emil du Bois-Reymond: Neuroscience, Self, and Society in Nineteenth-Century Germany.Gabriel Finkelstein - 2013 - The MIT Press.details
This biography of Emil du Bois-Reymond, the most important forgotten intellectual of the nineteenth century, received an Honorable Mention for History of Science, Medicine, and Technology at the 2013 PROSE Awards, was shortlisted for the 2014 John Pickstone Prize (Britain's most prestigious award for the best scholarly book in the history of science), and was named by the American Association for the Advancement of Science as one of the Best Books of 2014. -/- In his own time (1818–1896) du Bois-Reymond (...) grew famous for his groundbreaking research in neuroscience and his provocative addresses on politics and culture. His discovery of the electrical transmission of nerve signals, his innovations in laboratory instrumentation, and his reductionist methodology all helped lay the foundations of modern neuroscience. -/- In addition to describing the pioneering experiments that earned du Bois-Reymond a seat in the Prussian Academy of Sciences and a professorship at the University of Berlin, this book also recounts du Bois-Reymond's family origins, private life, public service, and lasting influence. In talks that touched on science, philosophy, history, and literature, du Bois-Reymond introduced Darwin to German students (triggering two days of debate in the Prussian parliament), asked on the eve of the Franco-Prussian War whether France had forfeited its right to exist, and proclaimed the mystery of consciousness, heralding the age of doubt. The first modern biography in any language, "Emil du Bois-Reymond" recovers an important chapter in the history of science, the history of ideas, and the history of Germany. (shrink)
Book Review: The Dawn of Critical neuroscienceChoudhurySuparnaSlabyJan Critical Neuroscience: A Handbook of the Social and Cultural Contexts of Neuroscience. Chichester, Sx: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. Xv + 390 Pp. ISBN: 978-1-4443-3328-2. [REVIEW]Steve Fuller - 2013 - History of the Human Sciences 26 (3):107-115.details
Alexander Forbes, Walter Cannon, and Science-Based Literature.Justin Garson - 2013 - In A. Stiles, S. Finger & F. Boller (eds.), Progress in Brain Research Vol. 205: Literature, Neurology, and Neuroscience: Historical and Literary Connections. Amsterdam: Elsevier. pp. 241-256.details
The Harvard physiologists Alexander Forbes (1882-1965) and Walter Bradford Cannon (1871-1945) had an enormous impact on the physiology and neuroscience of the twentieth century. In addition to their voluminous scientific output, they also used literature to reflect on the nature of science itself and its social significance. Forbes wrote a novel, The Radio Gunner, a literary memoir, Quest for a Northern Air Route, and several short stories. Cannon, in addition to several books of popular science, wrote a literary memoir in (...) the last year of his life, The Way of an Investigator. The following will provide a brief overview of the life and work of Forbes and Cannon. It will then discuss the way that Forbes used literature to express his views about the changing role of communications technology in the military, and his evolving view of the nervous system itself as a kind of information-processing device. It will go on to discuss the way that Cannon used literature to articulate the horrors he witnessed on the battlefield, as well as to contribute to the philosophy of science, and in particular, to the logic of scientific discovery. Finally, it will consider the historical and philosophical value of deeper investigation of the literary productions of scientists. (shrink)
Biological Information in Philosophy of Biology
Psychology.Gary Hatfield - 2012 - In Allen W. Wood & Songsuk Susan Hahn (eds.), Cambridge History of Philosophy in the 19th Century (1790-1870). Cambridge University Press. pp. 241-262.details
The quantitative experimental scientific psychology that became prominent by the turn of the twentieth century grew from three main areas of intellectual inquiry. First and most directly, it arose out of the traditional psychology of the philosophy curriculum, as expressed in theories of mind and cognition. Second, it adopted the attitudes of the new natural philosophy of the scientific revolution, attitudes of empirically driven causal analysis and exact observation and experimentation. Third, it drew upon investigations of the senses. Natural philosophical (...) disciplines such as optics and acoustics treated the functioning of the senses. Optics, in particular, had from antiquity comprised a complete theory of vision, combining the physics, physiology, psychology, metaphysics, and epistemology of vision, using mathematical techniques where feasible. Within medicine, sensory physiology examined anatomy, physiology, and pathology. Philosophical psychology had long examined the senses as mental capacities connected with cognition and knowledge, and such discussions also heeded the new attitudes of natural philosophy. This chapter first examines the early relations of psychology to biology and characterizes various eighteenth-century loci of psychological thought. It then pursues nineteenth-century developments in Germany and Britain that culminate in the "new" psychology of the 1860s and 1870s. (shrink)
19th Century Philosophy, Misc in 19th Century Philosophy
Psychophysics in Philosophy of Mind
The Birth of the Neuromolecular Gaze.Joelle M. Abi-Rached & Nikolas Rose - 2010 - History of the Human Sciences 23 (1):11-36.details
The aim of this article is (1) to investigate the 'neurosciences' as an object of study for historical and genealogical approaches and (2) to characterize what we identify as a particular 'style of thought' that consolidated with the birth of this new thought community and that we term the 'neuromolecular gaze'. This article argues that while there is a long history of research on the brain, the neurosciences formed in the 1960s, in a socio-historical context characterized by political change, faith (...) in scientific and technological progress, and the rise of a molecular gaze in the life sciences. They flourished in part because these epistemological and technological developments were accompanied by multiple projects of institution-building. An array of stakeholders was mobilized around the belief that breakthroughs in understanding the brain were not only crucial, they were possible by means of collaborative efforts, cross-disciplinary approaches and the use of a predominantly reductionist neuromolecular method. The first part of the article considers some of the different approaches that have been adopted to writing the history of the brain sciences. After a brief outline of our own approach, the second part of the article uses this in a preliminary exploration of the birth of the neurosciences in three contexts. We conclude by arguing that the 1960s constitute an important 'break' in the long path of the history of the brain sciences that needs further analysis. We believe this epistemological shift we term the 'neuromolecular gaze' will shape the future intellectual development and social role of the neurosciences. (shrink)
The Persistence of the Subjective in Neuropsychopharmacology: Observations of Contemporary Hallucinogen Research.Nicolas Langlitz - 2010 - History of the Human Sciences 23 (1):37-57.details
The elimination of subjectivity through brain research and the replacement of so-called 'folk psychology' by a neuroscientifically enlightened worldview and self-conception has been both hoped for and feared. But this cultural revolution is still pending. Based on nine months of fieldwork on the revival of hallucinogen research since the 'Decade of the Brain,' this paper examines how subjective experience appears as epistemic object and practical problem in a psychopharmacological laboratory. In the quest for neural correlates of (drug-induced altered states of) (...) consciousness, introspective accounts of test subjects play a crucial role in neuroimaging studies. Firsthand knowledge of the drugs' flamboyant effects provides researchers with a personal knowledge not communicated in scientific publications, but key to the conduct of their experiments. In many cases, the 'psychedelic experience' draws scientists into the field and continues to inspire their self-image and way of life. By exploring these domains the paper points to a persistence of the subjective in contemporary neuropsychopharmacology. (shrink)
Illusion and Hallucination in Philosophy of Mind
Introspection and Introspectionism in Philosophy of Cognitive Science
Subjectivity and Consciousness in Philosophy of Mind
Neuroscience, Power and Culture: An Introduction.Scott Vrecko - 2010 - History of the Human Sciences 23 (1):1-10.details
In line with their vast expansion over the last few decades, the brain sciences — including neurobiology, psychopharmacology, biological psychiatry, and brain imaging — are becoming increasingly prominent in a variety of cultural formations, from self-help guides and the arts to advertising and public health programmes. This article, which introduces the special issue of History of the Human Science on 'Neuroscience, Power and Culture', considers the ways that social and historical research can, through empirical investigations grounded in the observation of (...) what is actually happening and has already happened in the sciences of mind and brain, complement speculative discussions of the possible social implications of neuroscience that now appear regularly in the media and in philosophical bioethics. It suggests that the neurosciences are best understood in terms of their lineage within the 'psy'-disciplines, and that, accordingly, our analyses of them will be strengthened by drawing on existing literatures on the history and politics of psychology — particularly those that analyze formations of knowledge, power and subjectivity associated with the discipline and its practical applications. Additionally, it argues against taking today's neuroscientific facts and brain-targetting technologies as starting points for analysis, and for greater recognition of the ways that these are shaped by historical, cultural and political-economic forces. (shrink)
Neuroethics in Applied Ethics
Political Power in Social and Political Philosophy
Robert L. Martensen. The Brain Takes Shape: An Early History. Xxvii + 247 Pp., Index. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. [REVIEW]Charles T. Wolfe - 2009 - Isis 100 (3):659-659.details


text:
Visa Application Form
Types & Regulation
Visa Stamp Fees
Consulate Visa Application Forms
Iran Guide
Souvenirs & Handicrafts
Travel Facts
Customer Regulations
Currency & Money
Price Samples
Iranian Cuisine
Time & Calendar
Farsi Language
Iran Hotel Reservation
Iran Tour Reservation
Iran Flight Booking
Iran has been a member of World Heritage Sites of UNESCO since 1978, with 17 sites has been already registered and 57 sites are tentative candidates.
Many great monuments in Iran are inscribed as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Among these are the architecturally unique Ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil, the jewel in the crown of the 2nd millennium BC Elamite history; the spectacular ruins of Persepolis that testify to the grandeur that was Persia; Pasargadae, the first capital of Ancient Persia and the resting place of Cyrus the Great; the massive complex of palaces and temples of Takht-e Soleyman; the world-famous 6th century BC rock-relief of Bisotun portraying the Achaemenid king Darius I commemorating his victory over his rivals; the architectural masterpiece and handsomely embellished 14th century Gonbad-e Soltaniyeh; Naqsh-e Jahan Square, the climax of Islamic art and architecture of 17th-century Persia;
UNESCO Heritage Tour
Date and Prices
Trip Preparation
DAY 1: ARRIVAL TEHRAN
DAY 2:Tehran
DAY 3:Tehran –Zanjan-Tabriz
DAY 4:Tabriz-Makou-Tabriz
DAY 5:Tabriz-Kandovan-Takab
DAY 6: Takab-Takhte Soleiman – Kermanshah
DAY 7:Kermanshah- Ahwaz
DAY 8: AHWAZ/EXCURSION TO CHOGHA ZANBIL, SUSA
DAY 9:Ahwaz-Shiraz
DAY 10: SHIRAZ
DAY 11: SHIRAZ/EXCURSION TO PERSEPOLIS, NAGHSH-E-ROSTAM & PASARGADAE
DAY 12: SHIRAZ-KERMAN
DAY 13: KERMAN/EXCURSION TO RAYEN & MAHAN
DAY 14: KERMAN-Zeinoldin
DAY 15: Zeinoddin – YAZD
DAY 16: YAZD-ISFAHAN
DAY 17: ISFAHAN
DAY 19: ISFAHAN-Abyaneh – Kashan
Day 20: Kashan – Tehran
DAY 21: DEPARTURE TEHRAN
21 DAY Tour of 17 UNESCO Heritage Sites in Iran
Arrival in Tehran; meet and transfer to hotel for overnight stay at hotel.
FD sightseeing in Tehran O/N Hotel
Drive to Tabriz via Zanjan to visit Sultanieh Unesco heritage, O/N Hotel
A full day visit excursion to see Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazzar of Tabriz and drive to Maku to visit Black Church and return, O/N hotel
Drive to Takab via Kandovan.O/N Hotel
DAY 6: Takab-Takhte Soleiman – Kermanshah Takab to visit the Sassanid citadel and the main holy fire temple in Takht-e Soleyman, on in the scenic valley of Zagross mountain ranges , then continue to Kermanshah, Visit Bisotoun and check in hotel, ovenight.
Drive from Kermanshah to Ahwaz.
Full-day excursion to Chogha-Zanbil, to visit the ziggurat ,O/N Hotel
Drive to Shiraz, O/N Hotel
Full day city tour of Shiraz O/N Hotel
Full day excursion to Persepolis, one of the most important sites of the Ancient World, the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid kings with remains of the palaces of Darius the Great, Xerxes and Artaxerxes, and its famous bas-reliefs, drive a further 70 Km to Pasargadae, pre-dating Persepolis, site of the simple, but impressive, tomb of Cyrus the Great, the Founder of the Persian Empire, O/N Hotel
Drive to Kerman, O/N Hotel
Full day excursion to Bam, on the return drive stop at Mahan, to visit the blue-tiled Mausoleum of Shah Nematollah-e-Vali, the great 14th century Sufi Leader, and the Shahzadeh Garden (late 19th century Qajar-period garden/house); return to Kerman for overnight stay at hotel.
Half day visits in Kerman to see Ganj-Ali-Khan Complex (17th century Safavid period bathhouse, bazaar, and caravanserai), the Hammam-e-Vakil; another 18th century bathhouse turned into a traditional teahouse/restaurant, and the
14th century Friday Mosque; afternoon drive to Zein-ed-Din Caravanserai, dating from the Safavid period; overnight stay at hotel.
Full day visits in Yazd, O/N Hotel
Drive to Isfahan, en-route visit Na'in, a charming desert town, half way between Yazd and Isfahan, to visit the 10th century Friday Mosque, O/N Hotel
Full day tour of the beautiful city of Isfahan, the 17th century capital of the Safavids, referred to as Nesf-e-Jahan (Half of the World) in Safavid sources, to visit the famous bridges of Shahrestan/Khajou/Sio-se-pol, the Armenian Quarter with several churches, including the important Cathedral of Vank; in the afternoon visit one of the world's grandest squares, the Maidan-e-Naghsh-e-Jahan, with several sites (the Ali-Qapu Palace with its enchanting music rooms and balcony overlooking the Maidan, from where the Safavid Kings watched polo games, and two of Islamic world's greatest mosques – the Sheikh Lotfollah and the Imam – with magnificent architecture and tilework), finishing with a visit to the Qeisarieh Bazaar with hundreds of shops displaying the arts and handicrafts for which Isfahan is world-famous O/N Hotel
Further visits in Isfahan to include the magnificent Friday Mosque, with the famous Uljaitu Mihrab of the Il-Khanid period. The Friday Mosque is considered a museum of a thousand years of Persian religious architecture and is truly one of the world's greatest mosques. From here drive to the Chehel Sotun Palace,
O/N Hotel
Morning drive to Tehran, en-route stop over at the charming town of Natanz to visit a beautiful Islamic Complex (Friday Mosque), on to Kashan to visit the historical garden of Fin ,continue to Tehran and drive by the Mausoleum of Imam Khomeini, transfer to hotel for overnight stay.
Visit Fin Garden and Tabatabei House in the morning and drive to Tehran, O/N Hotel
Day 21: DEPARTURE TEHRAN Transfer to IKA airport for departure flight.
Date and Prices Content
Special Offer Min.12 pax Min.8 pax Min.4pax Min.2pax
(Januarary-March)
Time Table(2013) Min. 12 pax Min .8 pax Min.4 pax Min. 2 pax Rate of Hotels
Per Pax in DBL Euro Euro Euro Euro Middle Class
Per Pax in SGL Euro Euro Euro Euro
Invitation letter for Iran Visa, 9 Nights accommodation with Breakfast, Domestic flight, Experienced International speaking guide, private Transfers and transportation all long the journey, All entrance fees and refreshment,
Trip Preparation Content
Being at the crossroads of important trade routes and known for the production of silk and cotton garments, Bam is situated in a desert environment on the southern edge of the Iranian high plateau. The origins of Bam can be traced back to the Achaemenid period (6th to 4th centuries BC).
But its heydays were from the 7th to 11th centuries. The existence of life in the oasis was based on the underground irrigation canals, the qanāts, of which Bam has preserved some of the earliest evidence in Iran. Arg-e Bam is the most representative example of a fortified medieval town built in vernacular technique using mud layers. The Arg-e Bam (Citadel of Bam), established in the Sassanian period, is situated atop an artificial hill in the northwest quadrant of the old city of Bam. This artificial hill elevates the citadel approximately 5 meters above the surrounding urban fabric. The citadel complex occupies an area 315 meters wide along the east-west axis by 270 meters long along the north-south axis. Bounded on the north by the river, by steep cliffs to the east, and by gardens and residential neighborhoods to the north, northwest and south, the Arg-e Bam was optimized for both self-sufficiency and protection.
This is one of the most splendid historical sites in the whole world; while most of the best known historical sites in the world signify a limited period in history, Arg-e-Bam displays the imprints of 2000 continuous years of a dramatic, eventful history .This peculiarity has made estimation of the precise age of most parts of this historical complex rather difficult, sometimes even impossible.
Security was a major concern in the Arg-e Bam; the citadel complex was surrounded by deep trenches and four encircling and dividing defensive walls. The citadel subdivided into two major sections, residential and military, separated by a wall tentatively dated to the Seljuk period. The citadel also contains three wells, located along a single north-south axis. The residential complex contains the governor's residence, baths, a detached watchtower, the chahar fasl (four seasons) palace, the prison, the dungeons, and one of the citadel wells. The military section comprises the commander's quarters, barracks, stables for 200 horses, and two wells. The governor's mansion was constructed at the highest point within the Arg-e Bam, next to the complex watchtower. Heavily renovated during the Safavid (1501 – 1722) period, the mansion consists of a two-story main iwan with summer and winter wings. The prison and dungeon were located beneath the governor's residence, rather than in the military section. This dungeon and the chahar fasl, (a specifically Iranian building type, the "four-seasons building") are considered to be the oldest buildings within the Arg-e Bam. The detached watchtower is four-sided and decorated with shallow rectangular insets and three levels of windows. Below the watchtower platform is a chamber with an elevated entrance accessible via a staircase. The existence of other rooms within the watchtower suggests that the tower had other functions beyond that of security.
Natural disaster has recently struck Bam: shortly after the devastating earthquake of 26 December 2003, which leveled the city, the Arg-e Bam was inscribed on the 2004 World Heritage List, and added directly to the World Heritage in Danger List. Prior to the earthquake, the fortress had possessed the distinction of being the largest adobe building in the world, recognized for its unbaked mud brick and poured mud wall construction.
Chogha Zanbil is an ancient Elamite complex in the Khuzestan province of Iran. It is one of the few extant ziggurats outside of Mesopotamia. It lays approximately 25 kilometeres west of Dezfoul, 45 kilometres south of Susa and 230 kilometres north of Abadan by way of Ahvaz, which is 120 kilometres away.It was built about 1250 BCE by the king Untash-Napirisha, king of Elam, mainly to honor the great God Inshushinak. Its original name was Dur Untash, which means 'town of Untash', but it is unlikely that many people, besides priests and servants, ever lived there. The complex is protected by three concentric walls which define the main areas of the 'town'. The inner area is wholly taken up with a great ziggurat dedicated to the main God, which was built over an earlier square temple with storage rooms also built by Untash-Napirisha. The middle area holds eleven temples for lesser Gods. It is believed that twenty-two temples were originally planned, but the king died before they could be finished, and his successors discontinued the building work. In the outer area are royal palaces, a funerary palace containing five subterranean royal tombs with monumental dimensions.
Although construction in the city abruptly ended after Untash-Napirisha's death, the site was not abandoned, but continued to be occupied until it was destroyed by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal in 640 BCE. Some scholars speculate, based on the large number of temples and sanctuaries at Chogha Zanbil, that Untash-Napirisha attempted to create a new religious center (possibly intended to replace Susa) which would unite the gods of both highland and lowland Elam at one site.
The whole site are consists of the ruins of three concentric walls, within which are palaces, temples and a central Ziggurat (temple tower), measuring 105 X 105 meters. The first wall has seven gates, which reflects the religious ideologies of that time. The outer city wall was about 4 km long and enclosed an area of approximately 100 hectares. The royal quarter was situated adjacent to a major city gate some 450 m east of the Ziggurat. An extensive water tank and a group of three major buildings with large courts surrounded by lengthy halls and rooms were excavated in the nearby.
Mud-bricks are the general materials used in the complex. The well built monuments beautifully decorated with glazed baked bricks, gypsum, ornaments of faience and glass. Thousands of baked bricks bearing inscriptions with Elamite cuneiform characters were all inscribed by hand, ornamenting the most important buildings while Glazed terracotta statues such as bulls and winged griffins guarded the entrances to the Ziggurat.
Archaeological excavations undertaken between 1951 and 1962 revealed the site again, and the ziggurat is considered to be the best preserved example in the world. In 1979, Chogha Zanbil became the first Iranian site to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List
Masoule
Masuleh, 56 km. southwest of Rasht and 1050 meters above sea level, actually is the most beautiful ,the most breathtaking village in the northern regions of Iran. Masuleh is a village in the Gilan Province. Historical names for the village include Māsalar and Khortāb.
It was founded in the 10th century AD, and its current population is estimated to be around 800 persons. The first village of Masouleh is approximately established around 1006 AD, 6 km northwest of the current village, and it is called Old-Masouleh. People moved from Old-Masouleh to the current village because of Pestilence and neighbor attacks. Fog is predominant weather feature of Masouleh and it is surrounded by forest from valley to mount.
Although it is written that the community was established around 10 AD but the province of Gilan has a longer history.
Masouleh architecture is unique. So steep is the slope that the familiar Iranian network of narrow alleys is entirely absent and instead the buildings have been built into the mountain and are interconnected. Courtyards and roofs both serve as pedestrian areas similar to streets. Masouleh does not allow any motor vehicles to enter, due to its unique layout. It is the only village in Iran with such a prohibition. However, the small streets and many stairs simply wouldn't make it possible for vehicles to enter. The spectacular architecture of Masouleh is well-known as "The yard of the above building is the roof of the below building". Yellow clay coats the exterior of most buildings and this allows for better visibility in the fog.
Buildings are mostly 2 stories (1st floor and below floor) made of adobe, rods and bole. Small living room, big Guest room, winter room, Hall, WC and Balcony are usually found in 1st floor. Cold closet, barn and stable are located at ground floor which has access to the upper floor by several narrow steps inside the building.
The archaeological site of Takht-e Soleyman (Throne of Solomon), in north-western Iran (Azarbaijan Province), is situated in a valley set in a volcanic mountain region. It lies midway between Urumieh and Hamadan, very near the present-day town of Takab, and 400 km (250 miles)
west of Tehran.The site includes the principal Zoroastrian sanctuary partly rebuilt in the Ilkhanid (Mongol) period (13th century) as well as a temple of the Sasanian period (6th and 7th centuries) dedicated to Anahita. The originally fortified site, which is located on a crater rim, was recognized as a World Heritage Site in July 2003. The citadel includes the remains of a Zoroastrian sanctuary consists of a collection of swimming pool and lake, a place of worship, entrance gates, tall columns, hall, place of swearing, fire temples, mineral hot spring, and watch towers. With its purple and blue color, the pool, known as Takht-e Soleiman Lake, is one of the wonders of this historical site. It is about 80 meters wide and 120 meters long. With a depth of 110 meters it flows like a hot spring, pumping out about 100 liters of water every second. From the southern part, the castle looks like a gate with ruined walls – the 3-roofless rooms that used to be a place of worship for ancient Iranians.
The whole area built during the Sassanid period, and partially rebuilt during the Ilkhanid period. According to legend, the temple housed one the three "Great Fires" or "Royal Fires". Sassanid rulers are said to have journeyed there to humble themselves at the fire altar before ascending the throne.
Folk legend relates that King Solomon used to imprison monsters inside the 100 m deep crater of the nearby Zendan-e Soleyman "Prison of Solomon". Another crater inside the fortification itself is filled with spring water; Solomon is said to have created a flowing pond that still exists today. Nevertheless, Solomon belongs to Semitic legends and therefore, the lore and namesake (Solomon's Throne) should have been formed following Islamic conquest of Persia. After the Conquest, the Arabs sought to destroy anything Zoroastrian or Persian, as these things were deemed to be contrary to Islam.
In order to avoid this, the Persians changed the names of many sites and monuments to save them from destruction. Another example is in the city of Pasargadae, where they began referring to the tomb of Cyrus the Great as "Solomon's mother's tomb." A 4th century Armenian manuscript relating to Jesus and Zarathustra, and various historians of the Islamic period, mention this pond. The foundation of the fire temple around the pond is attributed to that legend. Archaeological excavations have revealed traces of a 5th century BC occupation during the Achaemenid period, as well as later Parthian settlements in the citadel. Coins belonging to the reign of Sassanid kings, and that of the Byzantine emperor Theodosius II (AD 408-450), have also been discovered there.
The site has important symbolic significance. The designs of the fire temple, the palace and the general layout have strongly influenced the development of Islamic architecture.
Soltaniyeh situated in the Zanjan Province of Iran, some 240 km to the north-west from Tehran, used to be the capital of Ilkhanid rulers of Persia in the 14th century. Its name translates as "the Imperial". The central magnet of Soltaniyeh's several ruins is
the Mausoleum of Il-khan Öljeitü, traditionally known as the Dome of Soltaniyeh.The structure, erected from 1302 until 1312, boasts the oldest double-shell dome in the world. Soltaniyeh is one of the outstanding examples of the achievements of Persian architecture and a key monument in the development of its Islamic architecture. The dome is the biggest in the world which is made of brick. From the elevation point of view it is the third highest of the kind in the world.
Its importance in the Muslim world may be compared to that of Brunelleschi's cupola for the Christian architecture. The Dome of Soltaniyeh paved the way for more daring Muslim cupola constructions, such as the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasavi and Taj Mahal. Much of exterior decoration has been lost, but the interior retains superb mosaics, faience, and murals.
The estimated 200 ton dome stands 49 meters (161 ft) tall from its base and with 25m diameter, the dome covered in turquoise-blue faience and surrounded by eight slender minarets .The whole building was completed in 10 years, but the 200 ton dome building takes only 40 days, while whole of this huge structure is founded on 50cm foundation.
Pope has described the building as "anticipating the Taj Mahal."
Travel Insurance in Iran
Iranian Rial Exchange Rate
Iran Calendar
Map of Tehran
Random Testimonials
I would like to thank you for everything you have done for me and my group. Everything was wonderful, the guide is No 1 and the driver as well. My clients and me were fully satisfied, thank you once more.
I wish you and to the people of Iran all the best. .
Victor from Czech
Touran Zamin As a leading Tour Operator specializes both in FIT and Group Iran tour operation with a wide variety of Enticing travel packages as well as Domestic and Int'l air ticketing.
Phone: +98 21 888 44 519-20
Email: info@TouranZamin.com
Website: www.TouranZamin.com
Address: 60 Mashahir Ave., Ghaem Magham St., Haft-e Tir, Tehran, Iran
Our location on Google Map
Copyright © 2019 | All rights reserved. Website Design by: ILIANA STUDIO

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Global Jewish Population Reaches 14.8 million
Screen capture: Rosov Consulting, "Jewish Family: Identity and Self-Formation at Home."
As we prepare to welcome the Jewish year 5780, the number of Jews worldwide stands at 14.8 million, compared to 14.7 million in 5779. Of these, 8.1 million live outside Israel (including 5.7 million in the United States). In Israel, the number of Jews is 6.7 million (compared to 6.6 million in 5779). The updated estimates were published by Professor Sergio Della Pergola of Hebrew University in the American Jewish Year Book 2019.
The numbers include those who define themselves as Jews and who do not identify with another religion. When including those who are eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return, the number rises to 23.6 million people, of whom 16.5 million live outside Israel.
Jewish populations of additional countries:
France: 450,000
Canada: 392,000
Great Britain: 292,000
Argentina: 180,000
Russia: 165,000
Germany: 118,000
Australia: 118,000
Brazil: 93,000
South Africa: 67,000
Ukraine: 48,000
Hungary: 47,000
Mexico: 40,000
Holland: 30,000
Belgium: 29,000
Italy: 27,000
Switzerland: 19,000
Chile: 18,000
Uruguay: 16,000
Sweden: 15,000
Spain: 12,000
Additional statistics from the study include:
Around 26,000 Jews live in Arab and Muslim states, of whom 15,000 live in Turkey, around 8,500 in Iran, around 2,000 in Morocco, and approximately 1,000 in Tunisia.
Countries with Jewish populations of 500 or fewer include: Bermuda, Bahamas, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Jamaica, Curacao, the Virgin Islands, Bolivia, Surinam, Cyprus, Malta, Slovenia, Bosnia, North Macedonia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Congo, Botswana, Kenya, Madagascar, Namibia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Yemen, Syria and Egypt.
The number of people waiting to make Aliyah to Israel from Ethiopia is around 8,000.


text:
Why Shujaa put up another poor show at the global stage
9 September 2022 Vincent Onyala of Kenya during the match between Kenya and Argentina at the Rugby world Cup 7s | Mens, Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town, South Africa.
Kenyans will continue to wait for glory at the Rugby World Cup Sevens stage for four more years after Shujaa failed to progress past the round of 16 encounter at the Cape Town Stadium on Friday in South Africa.
Despite carrying a lot of optimism and expectations, their dreams, goals and push ended in tears once again after another poor show was added to the long list of Shujaa's misses and anguish of their 2022 calendar.
Since the beginning of the year, Kenya has not gone past the quarter-final stage of any tournament after poor results in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby Africa Cup, Commonwealth Games and now Rugby World Cup.
Currently one of the 15 "core teams" of the World Series and with a guaranteed place in all 10 events each season, many rugby enthusiasts expected Kenya to compete for titles alongside the world's best Argentina, Fiji, South Africa and Australia in Cape Town.
This comes after the improved and promising performances at the Los Angeles Sevens, two weeks ago. However, that was not the case on Friday.
Ironically, it simple basic rugby playing rules and indiscipline that are hindering Shujaa's performances rather than injuries, form or style of play.
Kenya Sevens are playing really well with world class ball movement, pace and build up set plays which they got right during their opening match of the World Cup against Tonga.
Vincent Onyala, Willy Ambaka and Nelson Oyoo scored one try each as Shujaa defeated Tonga 19-0 in the preliminary round to reach the round of 16.
Damian McGrath charges defended well and played passionately in the win but the real test would await them later in the day as they had to face off against Argentina.
With the burden of replicating their semi-finals' heroics in Dubai (2009) and Moscow (2013) in their mind, Kenya took the pitch against the South American side with confidence from their dominant preliminary victory.
However, instead of playing with the same optimism they had when they faced Tonga, Shujaa were a pale shadow of their former selves.
First, they put themselves in a difficult position with no chance of recovery when two of their players Johnstone Olindi and Samuel Oliech were sin-binned in crucial moments of each half.
Olindi was the first man to be sent to the touchline after he was yellow carded, a numerical advantage Argentina capitalised on to lead 15-0 at the break after scoring two tries from Tobias Wade and Joaquin De La Vega and a Matías Osadczuk penalty.
KCB's Vincent Onyala brought Shujaa back into the game at the restart with a try but Oliech, who added the extras was sin-binned again gifting the South Americans the numerical advantage.
Alejo Lavayen immediately punished Shujaa who ended up losing 22-7.
Yesterday, Kenya Sevens who had dropped to the Challenge Trophy quarter-finals stormed the semi-finals after seeing off Scotland 24-5.
Herman Humwa, Billy Odhiambo, Vincent Onyala and captain Nelson Oyoo all crossed over to give Shujaa their second win ahead of their semis date against England.
"After a disappointing game against Argentina yesterday, we were pleased to get the win against Scotland. We stuck to the plan and held the ball, a tactic that helped us ease off pressure and score points," said Odhiambo after the win.
They have the Challenge Trophy to redeem themselves but that will not be enough.


text:
using Votyra.Core.Images.Constraints;
using Zenject;

namespace Votyra.Plannar.Unity
{
    public class SimpleSampleTerrain2iInstaller : MonoInstaller
    {
        public override void InstallBindings()
        {
            Container.Rebind<IImageConstraint2i>()
                .To<SimpleTycoonTileConstraint2i>()
                .AsSingle();
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Last week I came down with the flu- in my sickened daze I released a newish batch of homemade ambient music and sonic vignettes on Amalgam Virgo Sound. Castle on the Sea completes a trilogy of audio-visual, instrumental, & improvisational projects birthed by AVS this past year. Moving forward, Amalgam Virgo Sound will continue with it's original mission as a platform for promoting independent art, music, and more. For now, spend time in a Castle on the Sea.


The officer then fired into the vehicle as it drove away from the scene. Authorities later admitted, however, that they had misspoken in recounting what occurred and that it appeared as though the vehicle Edwards was in was driving away from the officers when shots were fired, based on body cam footage.
A House GOP aide said a vote this week, before the House leaves Washington for a week-long recess, is a possibility, though no changes had been made to the schedule as of Tuesday afternoon. "If they don't have the votes, then they'll have to make changes", Representative Peter King of NY, a Republican moderate, told reporters, indicating he would likely vote for the bill.
Forty terrorists were killed at Iraq's Mt. Sinjar, and another 49 at Syria's Mt. Karacok in April 25 airstrikes by Turkish forces against the PKK and its Syrian offshoots, PYD and YPG. Rights groups and some Western allies believe the country, a NATO- member and European Union candidate, is now closer to one-man rule. He said that the current United States deployment was temporary but did not rule out a possibility of it becoming permanent.
Journalism should be "the best obtainable version of the truth", Bernstein said, sharing his strategy for covering politicians: "When lying is combined with secrecy, there is a pretty good roadmap in front of you . "But this one is particularly isolating, or singling out, the retailers of media that they like" and trying to ignore those they don't. "Do you want to know what he's not doing when he's golfing?" We care deeply about it.
Mercedes have a one point lead in the constructors' championship while Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, with two wins and two second places, is 13 clear of Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton. "We need to keep pushing, keep finishing with both cars one and two". "This is the man of the race today, big congrats to Valtteri". "It took quite a while to win - more than 80 races for me - but it was definitely worth the wait and worth the learning curve".
Karen Handel , who emerged as the Republican candidate out of last night's 6th District Congressional primary in Georgia, speaks to CNN's Alyson Camerota about her plan to win in the June election. President Trump tweeted congratulations to former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel for managing to claw her way into a runoff. "It is now Hollywood vs.