Ecology of the brain

It's a while since I've strung together tweets of quotes or amended quotes I've made from a book to summarise it (see eg. previous post). I do think Ecology of the brain (2017) by Thomas Fuchs is an important book, so here goes:-

A good place to start is:-

The brain can only be adequately understood as an organ of a living being in its environment. April 23, 2020

There are limits to trying to understand human action in terms of the brain:-

The brain cannot read or write, it cannot dance or play the piano, and so on. Thus, I am rather glad not to be my brain, but to only have it. April 23, 2020

That doesn't mean that neurobiology is not important; nor that the explanation of human action is merely in terms of the psychosocial.

Neurobiology and all other sciences emerge as a specialist form of human practice originating in the lifeworld, yet without ever gaining a position outside of it. The familiar world of everyday experience in which we coexist with others remains our primary and actual reality. April 17, 2020

A personalistic perception of the human being does not mean a rejection or devaluation of the naturalistic attitude as such. May 5, 2020

The reason that we need a personalistic perception is that:-

In a world without subjective experience there are no longer signs, nor symbols or information, representations or meta-representations, meaning or sense. April 23, 2020

Reflecting, feeling, wanting, and deciding—none of these can be found at the physiological level of description because these concepts do not exist there at all. April 23, 2020

What could be explained about people if one only described monotonous, electrochemical processes on their neuronal membranes? April 23, 2020  

Furthermore:-

Neuronal processes are vehicles of meaning making and merely part of over-arching life processes that include the organism as a whole and its environment. The definition of mental disorder depends on subjective and cultural factors that fall outside the domain of natural science. May 5, 2020

And:-

Seen in isolation, the brain is merely a fragment; however, in the context of the organism and its environment it can become a mediator for relational and intentional processes. May 5, 2020

The brain is embedded in relational phenomena, yet it can only mediate them and not produce their meaning. May 5, 2020

The brain is a socially and historically shaped organ, whose functions of transformation and pattern formation enable biographical experiences to be turned into permanent dispositions and capacities. May 5, 2020

We need to have both naturalistic and personalistic attitudes:-

It is erroneous to identify brain with human subject and to look inside for what makes up the person. Human persons have brains, but they are not brains. We have no other choice but to refer to ourselves as animate, embodied beings in 2 kinds of speech of lived and physical body. May 5, 2020

The dual aspect of the human person corresponds to two basically different attitudes: namely, those we can adopt towards ourselves, and those in relation to others. We described these as personalistic or naturalistic attitudes. May 5, 2020

As I've said before (eg. see previous post) referring to Kant, the mind-brain problem is an enigma that can never be solved.

A person’s "eccentric positionality" (from Plessner) ie. the ability to adopt a reflective position in relation to himself as well as his bodily existence, means a person can never get behind his perceiving body. His self-relationship remains irreducibly ambiguous. May 5, 2020

People not only live, but they lead their life, and in this way they also form themselves. The brain is involved in these circular structures as an organ of mediation and relationships and as an organ of the human person. May 5, 2020

There needs to be new approach to mental health research, as suggested by Wellcome (see previous post).

Attempt at “localization of the mind” through research into brain activities represents no future-oriented research program. An ecological neurobiology is rather obliged to draw on the integrated approaches of dynamic systems theory, psychology, cultural studies, and philosophy. May 5, 2020

The final sentence in the book is:-

We are not the figments of our brains, but human persons in the flesh. May 5, 2020