Introduction
pp. 1-11
in: Stuart Spicker, Tristram Engelhardt (eds), Philosophical dimensions of the neuro-medical sciences, Berlin, Springer, 1976Abstract
The Second Trans-Disciplinary Symposium on Philosophy and Medicine, whose principal theme was "Philosophical Dimensions of the Neuro-Medical Sciences," convened at the University of Connecticut Health Center at the invitation of Robert U. Massey, Dean of the School of Medicine, during May 15, 16, and 17, 1975. The Proceedings constitute this volume. At this Symposium we intended to realize sentiments which Sir John Eccles expressed as director of a Study Week of the Pontificia Academia Scientiarum, Città del Vaticano, in the fall of 1964: "Certainly when one comes to a [study]… devoted to brain and mind it is not possible to exclude relations with philosophy" ([5], p. viii). During that study week in 1964, a group of distinguished biomedical and behavioral scientists met under the directorship of Sir John C. Eccles to relate psychology to what Sir John called "the Neurosciences." The purpose of that study week was to treat issues concerning the functions of the brain and, in particular, to concentrate upon the relations between brain functions and consciousness. Since the Academy's aim was "to promote the study and progress of the physical, mathematical, and natural sciences and their history" ([5], p. vii), the discussion of philosophical questions was "excluded" by design. Hence, professional philosophers were not invited to participate.