Journey through the Cortex: Philosophical Applications of Proprioception

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Philosophical Applications of Proprioception

Now, that a lot of things are becoming multidisciplinary, we are finding a certain crossroads between neuroscience and philosophy. I have often thought of my journey through my cortex as harkening back to some of the philosophical issues that I had studied as an undergraduate. I vaguely remember them as it has been a number of years since I have looked at those textbooks but when I have laying around after therapy with not enough energy to do anything, I have been thinking about the mind-body problem in a very personal way. Unfortunately, I haven't had the mental energy to do the heavy lifting to fully specify what I have been thinking but it has occurred to me that in my own personal journey that I am tackling some of the big issues of the mind-body problem, questions of personal identity, consciousness, epistemology (how do we know what we know--especially, since I haven't been able to count on a quality view of reality from my senses), etc. As my Gentle Reader can imagine, I am questioning a lot about myself these days. What is true, what was true but no longer is, what was true but has grown.

I have found an article here that goes into the beginnings of how proprioception (sense of the body) is connected with the philosophy of the mind.

Philosophy of the mind has become a large discipline within the study of philosophy. Encompassing such problems as the "mind-body problem" as well as questions of personal identity and consciousness, this discipline readily relates to the study of neuroscience. Through figuring out the complex circuitry of the nervous system, perhaps neuroscientists can aid philosophers in the quest for determining how the mind and the body are connected or if they are different entities altogether. Neurological cases of memory loss or aphasias can also provide a basis for determining what constitutes personal identity and consciousness based on cases where these seem to be lacking. An explanation of consciousness is necessary for a concrete theory of the mind; and within these theories it has become apparent that proprioception is essential to an adequate theory of consciousness.http://www.macalester.edu/psychology/whathap/UBNRP/proprioception08/philosophy.html