Gehirn und Geist

lädt das Studium generale zu folgendem Vortrag ein:

Prof. Richard Swinburne (Oxford)

The Interaction of Brain and Soul

Dienstag, 30. Januar 2001, 18.15 Uhr
Hörsaal N 3 (Muschel)

There is no more to the history of the world than all the events which occur. Events consist in the instantiation of properties in substances at times. Hard Materialalism claims that the only events are ones which involve material substances and physical (that is puplic) properties, such as my neurones firing. But that is false since there are also pains and after-images. Soft Materialism claims that the only events there are involve material objects and either physical or mental (that is private) properties but that too must be false since we could know all about which properties are instantiated and what has happened to every material object, whithout knowing what has happened to a particular person. This is brought out by the split brain experiment, where the two hemispheres of one brain are put into different skulls; but knowledge of all the physical and mental events connected with each brain would still not tell you which later person was the same as the earlier person. It follows unavoidably that person have an essential immaterial part, their soul, and that the person goes where his soul goes. In normal circumstances the soul goes where the brain goes, but in abnormal circumstances (e.g. when a brain is split) we do not know where the soul goes.

Prof. Dr. Richard Swinburne, born 1934, got his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Oxford, subsequently lecturer in Philosophy, University of Hull; Professor of Philosophy, University of Keele 1972–84, and since 1985 Nolloth Professor of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion, University of Oxford. Fellow of the British Academy, since 1992. He ist the author of 14 books.

Veröffentlichungen zum Thema:
The Evolution of the Soul, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1986 (Second Edition, 1997).
 

Nächste Veranstaltung in dieser Reihe:
Tagung zum Themenschwerpunkt: Wie frei ist der Mensch?
Moderation: Prof. Dr. Thomas Metzinger
Freitag, 9. Februar, 9.15–16.30 Uhr
Atrium maximum (Alte Mensa)