Dr. Louis Schreel (Ghent University - Belgium) Man Thinks and not the Brain. Erwin Straus on the Foundations of Cognitive and Phenomenological Psychology
May 4 2021
Abstract
In his main work Vom Sinn der Sinne (1935, 1954), the German phenomenologist, psychiatrist and neurologist Erwin Straus developed one of the first phenomenological contributions to the epistemological foundations of psychology. Straus’ main concern was to present an alternative to the three dominant theories of the time: behaviorism, classical materialism and the emerging computationalism of cybernetics. According to Straus, these three approaches to psychology were all plagued by a Cartesian epistemology, which he defined in terms of the strict separation between an “outer-worldly” mind and the material reality of body and brain in the objective space of res extensa. In his view, the replacement of the behaviorist hypothesis (mental states are behavior dispositions) with the classical materialist hypothesis (mental states are brain states) or with the computational hypothesis (mental states are computational states of the brain), did not change anything with regard to one underlying assumption: namely that cognitive processes function mechanistically and the conscious, subjective dimension does not itself play any essential cognitive role. Although behaviorism has today faded in influence, many cognitive approaches that seek a functional, mechanistic or specifically neuroscientific explanation of the mind still bracket conscious experience and treat its sense and meaning as though it plays no sui generis causal role. It is this lingering epiphenomenalism, which for Straus phenomenology had to offer an alternative to. In this talk, I will discuss Straus’ epistemological reflections and present how he saw phenomenology as furnishing the requisite conceptual foundations for psychology.
Louis Schreel is a Post-Doctoral Researcher working and teaching at the Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences at Ghent University. His research focuses on the relation between life and mind, the origins of intentionality in bodily movement and affectivity, and the relation between metabolism, cognition and the emergence of self. He obtained his PhD in Philosophy in 2018 from the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and the University of Antwerp. Concurrently with his research he is also pursuing further training in Nutrition Science, concentrating on the study of metabolism from a physiological and phenomenological point of view.
h. 16.45 CET
Dr. Louis Schreel (Ghent University - Belgium) Man Thinks and not the Brain. Erwin Straus on the Foundations of Cognitive and Phenomenological Psychology
Abstract
In his main work Vom Sinn der Sinne (1935, 1954), the German phenomenologist, psychiatrist and neurologist Erwin Straus developed one of the first phenomenological contributions to the epistemological foundations of psychology. Straus’ main concern was to present an alternative to the three dominant theories of the time: behaviorism, classical materialism and the emerging computationalism of cybernetics. According to Straus, these three approaches to psychology were all plagued by a Cartesian epistemology, which he defined in terms of the strict separation between an “outer-worldly” mind and the material reality of body and brain in the objective space of res extensa. In his view, the replacement of the behaviorist hypothesis (mental states are behavior dispositions) with the classical materialist hypothesis (mental states are brain states) or with the computational hypothesis (mental states are computational states of the brain), did not change anything with regard to one underlying assumption: namely that cognitive processes function mechanistically and the conscious, subjective dimension does not itself play any essential cognitive role. Although behaviorism has today faded in influence, many cognitive approaches that seek a functional, mechanistic or specifically neuroscientific explanation of the mind still bracket conscious experience and treat its sense and meaning as though it plays no sui generis causal role. It is this lingering epiphenomenalism, which for Straus phenomenology had to offer an alternative to. In this talk, I will discuss Straus’ epistemological reflections and present how he saw phenomenology as furnishing the requisite conceptual foundations for psychology.
Louis Schreel is a Post-Doctoral Researcher working and teaching at the Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences at Ghent University. His research focuses on the relation between life and mind, the origins of intentionality in bodily movement and affectivity, and the relation between metabolism, cognition and the emergence of self. He obtained his PhD in Philosophy in 2018 from the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and the University of Antwerp. Concurrently with his research he is also pursuing further training in Nutrition Science, concentrating on the study of metabolism from a physiological and phenomenological point of view.
Please contact Prof. Francesca Brencio [ fbrencio@us.es ] to receive the Zoom link
Lectures and Discussions will be held in English
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