Reconsidering the ignorabimus: du Bois-Reymond and the hard problem of consciousness
Abstrak
Argument In this paper I present an interpretation of du Bois-Reymond’s thesis on the impossibility of a scientific explanation of consciousness and of its present importance. I reconsider du Bois-Reymond’s speech “On the limits of natural science” (1872) in the context of nineteenth-century German philosophy and neurophysiology, pointing out connections and analogies with contemporary arguments on the “hard problem of consciousness.” Du Bois-Reymond’s position turns out to be grounded on an epistemological argument and characterized by a metaphysical skepticism, motivated by the unfruitful speculative tendency of contemporary German philosophy and natural science. In the final sections, I show how contemporary research can benefit from a reconsideration of this position and its context of emergence, which is a good vantage point to trace open problems in consciousness studies back to their historical development.
Topik & Kata Kunci
Penulis (1)
P. Pecere
Akses Cepat
- Tahun Terbit
- 2020
- Bahasa
- en
- Total Sitasi
- 3×
- Sumber Database
- Semantic Scholar
- DOI
- 10.1017/S0269889720000095
- Akses
- Open Access ✓