The CEU Department of Philosophy cordially invites you to a talk

by

István Aranyosi (Bilkent University)

on

`Nerve and analysis -- conceptual analysis in neuroscience`

Tuesday, 21 May, 2013, 5.30 PM, Zrinyi 14, Room 412

ABSTRACT

Contemporary philosophers of mind tend to subscribe to a dichotomy between so-called empirical and so-called analytic or a priori methods of philosophical research, which, in their view, leads to a current chasm: Armchair versus Empirical philosophy of mind. I argue that this is a false dichotomy and the idea of a chasm is misplaced. I will base my argument on the early history (19th and early 20th Century) of neuroscience, namely, the birth experimental neurophysiology, where we can identify an essential a priori component in scientific reasoning. I then apply those pieces of reasoning to some extant problems in the philosophy of mind, thus offering some elegant solutions to them.