Neuroexistentialism: A Brain in Search of Meaning

[image fromHuth et al., 2016]No, not“meaning” in the semantic sense... “Neuroexistentialism” is the angst that some humans feel upon realizing that the mind and spirit have an entirely physical basis. At a personal level I don ' t understand all the hubbub, because I accepted thatmind = brain when I entered graduate school to study neuroscience. But for others:“Coming to terms with the neural basis of who we are can be very unnerving. It has been called“neuroexistentialism”, which really captures the essence of it. We ’re not in the habit of thinking about ourselves that way” (Churchland, 2013). It ' s very 2013.Neuroexistentialismis also the title of a forthcoming volume of essays edited by Caruso and Flanagan. In theirintroductory chapter, Flanagan and Caruso define this philosophical variant in the progression of existentialisms to the present third-wave:“There are three kinds of existentialism that respond to three different kinds of grounding projects—grounding in God’s nature, in a shared vision of the collective good, or in science. The first-wave existentialism of Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, and Nietzsche expressed anxiety about the idea tha t meaning and morals are made secure because of God’s omniscience and good will. The second-wave existentialism of Sartre, Camus, and de Beauvoir, was a post-holocaust response to the idea that some uplifting secular vision of the common good might serve as a foundation.Today, there is a third-wave...
Source: The Neurocritic - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Source Type: blogs