Bøker av Georg Northoff

An argument for a Copernican revolution in our consideration of mental features--a shift in which the world-brain problem supersedes the mind-body problem. Philosophers have long debated the mind-body problem--whether to attribute such mental features as consciousness to mind or to body. Meanwhile, neuroscientists search for empirical answers, seeking neural correlates for consciousness, self, and free will. In this book, Georg Northoff does not propose new solutions to the mind-body problem; instead, he questions the problem itself, arguing that it is an empirically, ontologically, and conceptually implausible way to address the existence and reality of mental features. We are better off, he contends, by addressing consciousness and other mental features in terms of the relationship between world and brain; philosophers should consider the world-brain problem rather than the mind-body problem. This calls for a Copernican shift in vantage point--from within the mind or brain to beyond the brain--in our consideration of mental features. Northoff, a neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and philosopher, explains that empirical evidence suggests that the brain's spontaneous activity and its spatiotemporal structure are central to aligning and integrating the brain within the world. This spatiotemporal structure allows the brain to extend beyond itself into body and world, creating the "world-brain relation" that is central to mental features. Northoff makes his argument in empirical, ontological, and epistemic-methodological terms. He discusses current models of the brain and applies these models to recent data on neuronal features underlying consciousness and proposes the world-brain relation as the ontological predisposition for consciousness.

From Brain Dynamics to the Mind: Spatiotemporal Neuroscience explores how the self and consciousness is related to neural events. Sections in the book cover existing models used to describe the mind/brain problem, recent research on brain mechanisms and processes and what they tell us about the self, consciousness and psychiatric disorders. The book presents a spatiotemporal approach to understanding the brain and the implications for artificial intelligence, novel therapies for psychiatric disorders, and for ethical, societal and philosophical issues. Pulling concepts from neuroscience, psychology and philosophy, the book presents a modern and complete look at what we know, what we can surmise, and what we may never know about the distinction between brain and mind.

Neurowaves demonstrates how the brain's inner time and its dynamics produce the mind and mental features like thoughts and feelings. Northoff proposes that the world is structured by waves of time, and the passing of these waves through our brains - neurowaves - is the basis of our mental experiences of the world.

This book explores how the relationship between philosophy and the brain can inform neuroscience, the mind-brain problem and debates about consciousness. Written in a lively style with extensive pedagogy to explain complex concepts, this is interesting reading for students and researchers of psychology, neuroscience and philosophy.

Applying insights from neuroscience to philosophical questions about the self, consciousness and the healthy mind.