Popper/Eccles The Self and Its Brain

The Self and Its Brain

by Karl R. Popper and John C. Eccles

With 66 Figures

ISl Springer International

Sir Karl Popper
Fallowfield, Manor Close, Manor Road, Penn, Buckinghamshire, England

Sir John Eccles

Contra (Locarno) CH-6611 Switzerland

Corrected 2nd Printing 1985

Corrected Printing 1981
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DOI:I0.I007/978-3-642-61891-8

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UbrlIJy of Congress Cataloging In Publication Data Popper, Karl RaImund, SIr,1902- The self and Its bram.Blbhogra-
phy. p. Includes index. 1 Mind and body. 2. Self. 3. Brain. I Eccles, John, SIr, Jomt author II. Title BF161.P585 128'2
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© by Sir Karl Popper and Sir John Eccles, 1977

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To our wives

Each waking day is a stage dominated for good or ill, in comedy, farce or tragedy by a dra-
matis persona, the 'self', and so it will be until the curtain drops.
c. S. Sherrington, 1947.
Only human beings guide their behaviour by a knowledge of what happened before they were
born and a preconception of what may happen after they are dead: thus only human beings
find their way by a light that illumines more than the patch of ground they stand on.

Peter B. Medawar and Jean S. Medawar, 1977.

Preface

The problem of the relation between our bodies and our minds, and espe-
cially of the link between brain structures and processes on the one hand
and mental dispositions and events on the other is an exceedingly difficult
one. Without pretending to be able to foresee future developments, both
authors of this book think it improbable that the problem will ever be
solved, in the sense that we shall really understand this relation. We think
that no more can be expected than to make a little progress here or there.
We have written this book in the hope that we have been able to do so.
We are conscious of the fact that what we have done is very conjectur-
al and very modest. We are aware of our fallibility; yet we believe in the
intrinsic value of every human effort to deepen our understanding of our-
selves and of the world we live in. We believe in humanism: in human
rationality, in human science, and in other human achievements, however
fallible they are. We are unimpressed by the recurrent intellectual fashions
that belittle science and the other great human achievements.
An additional motive for writing this book is that we both feel that the
debunking of man has gone far enough - even too far. It is said that we
had to learn from Copernicus and Darwin that man's place in the universe
is not so exalted or so exclusive as man once thought. That may well be.
But since Copernicus we have learned to appreciate how wonderful and
rare, perhaps even unique, our little Earth is in this big universe; and since
Darwin we have learned more about the incredible organization of allliv-
ing things on Earth, and also about the unique position of man among his
fellow creatures.
These are some of the points on which the two authors of the book
agree. But we also disagree on a number of important points. We hope
that these points will become clear in our recorded dialogue which forms
Part III of the book.
VIII
However, it may be well to mention at once one important difference
between the authors: a difference in religious belief. One of us (Eccles) is
a believer in God and the supernatural, while the other (Popper) may be
describe~ as an agnostic. Each of us not only deeply respects the position
of the other, but sympathizes with it.
This difference of opinion should be quite immaterial in our discussion
of some of the problems, especially of the purely scientific ones, but it
obtrudes in our discussion of problems of a more philosophical nature.
Thus one of us is inclined to defend the idea of the survival of the human
soul as does Socrates in Plato's Phaedo, while the other inclines towards
an agnostic position more like that of Socrates in Plato's Apology. And,
although we are both evolutionists, Eccles believes that the gulf between
animal consciousness and human self-consciousness is wider than Popper
thinks it to be. However, we do agree on many important points, such as
a distrust of solutions which are very simple. We suspect that there are
deep riddles to be solved. Our main thesis - psychophysical interactionism
- will be discussed at length in the book. Here we wish to mention just
one or two points of method.
Among these, we agree on the importance of a presentation that stri-
ves for clarity and simplicity. Words should be used well and carefully (we
have certainly not everywhere succeeded in this); but their meaning
should never, we think, become a topic of discussion or be permitted to
dominate the discussion, as happens so often in contemporary philosophi-
cal writing. And although it is sometimes useful to indicate in which of its
various senses we use a word, it is not possible to do so by defining it,
since every definition must make essential use of undefined terms. Where
practicable, we have used non-technical terms in preference to technical
ones.
However, to put it in a nutshell, what we are interested in is not the
meaning of terms but the truth of theories; and this truth is largely inde-
pendent of the terminology used.
Something may be said in this connection about our use of the terms
"soul", "mind", "self", "consciousness of self", and so on. We have in the
main avoided the word "soul" because in the English language it has
strong religious connotations. It is not quite the same with the words
"Seele", "anima", "psyche". The word "mind" is used as in ordinary lan-
guage (for example "I made up my mind"). We have tried to avoid its
philosophical connotations: what is important is not to prejudge the issue
by the terminology used.
 IX
It may be mentioned that we have decided not to refer to parapsycho-
logy, of which neither of us has had any direct experience.
This book may be described as an attempt in interdisciplinary co-ope-
ration. One of us (Eccles) is a brain scientist who was led into this field of
research by his life-long interest in the brain-mind problem. The other
(Popper) is a philosopher who throughout his life has been dissatisfied
with the prevailing schools of philosophy and deeply interested in science.
Both are dualists or even pluralists, and interactionists. Their co-operation
was inspired by the hope of learning from each other.
The P (Popper) and E (Eccles) chapters form Parts I and II of the
book. They were written independently, partly in the Villa Serbelloni, and
partly later, during the two years that have elapsed since. Part III is based
on the taped recording of a dialogue that was carried on from day to day
as indicated by the dates and times. It spontaneously flowed from the
many discussions that we had while walking in the lovely grounds of the
Villa Serbelloni; especially from discussions of problems on which we disa-
greed. We have decided to present it more or less in its original form.
(However, we cut out in the end some of the topics from our dialogue
because they were afterwards treated at length in our respective chapters;
though this may in some cases have been at the cost of continuity.) The
dialogue shows that some of our views changed in the light of criticisms
that arose in different guises from day to day.

KARL R. POPPER
JOHN C. ECCLES
Acknowledgements

We wish to express our thanks firstly to Doctor Ralph Richardson and Doctor Jane Allen of
the Rockefeller Foundation (Bellagio Study and Conference Center) for arranging the invita-
tion to the Center. Doctor William Olson, the Director of the Center and Mrs Olson pro-
vided wonderful hospitality in the most attractive of Academic havens, the Villa Serbelloni
on Lago di Como. For the month of September 1974 we were guests there with our wives.
The venue was ideal for wandering and talking between the discipline of writing our respecti-
ve chapters, and eventually the developing peripatetic dialogue was recorded in daily taped
sessions to form Part III of this book.
J.CE.
K.R.P.

The influence on my sections of discussions with Sir John Eccles - especially of the long
discussion of 1974 which was recorded and is now reproduced in this book - will be appa-
rent. He has, in addition, made critical comments on my sections, and suggested several
important improvements. So have Sir Ernst Gombrich, and also my wife, who typed and
criticized in detail several versions of the manuscript.
Jeremy Shearmur who, thanks to the generosity of the Nuffield Foundation, is my Re-
search Assistant, was immensely helpful. He carefully scrutinized an earlier version. He criti-
cized the presentation of my arguments, and made many suggestions for remedies. He also
made important positive contributions, which I have acknowledged at the relevant places.
I would also like to thank Mrs. P. Watts for her work on typing the final manuscript, and
David Miller for his help with the proofs.
K.R.P.

Without the example, encouragement and criticism of Sir Karl Popper I would not have
dared to express my ideas on the brain-mind problem in the manner evident in the philo-
sophical sections of my chapters. I wish to express my thanks to my wife, Helena, for her
valuable comments on the manuscript and for composing many of the illustrations as well as
for much of the typing. Most of this manuscript was completed during my Buffalo period. My
assistant, Miss Virginia Muniak, made a specially notable contribution by her typing from the
12 hour taped recording of our dialogues (Part III). Miss Tecla Rantucci gave most valuable
assistance in the construction of some of the figures and with her expert photography.
I wish to express my grateful thanks to the many neuroscientists named below for so
kindly allowing the reproduction of figures from their publications and in some cases for
providing me with figures for reproduction: Drs G. Allen, T. Bliss, A. Brodal, A. Gardner
XII
Medwin, N. Geschwind, G. Gray, A. Hein, R. Held, D. Hubel, E. Jones, H. Komhuber,
B. Libet, B. Milner, T. Powell, R. Sperry, J. Szentagothai, C. Trevarthen, N. Tsukahara, and
T. Wiesel.
J.C.E.

Our association with the publishers has not been in the characteristic mode of a purely busi-
ness relationship. Dr. Heinz Gotze, President of Springer-Verlag, has taken a deep personal
interest through the long incubation period of over two years and has been wonderfully
helpful to both of us. Once the manuscript was finally submitted at the end of March, 1977,
the efficiency of his staff, notably Miss Monika Brendel and Mr. Kurt Teichmann, has result-
ed in a publication in just six months, which is remarkable for a book of this size and comple-
xity.
K. R. P.
J. C. E.
Contents

PART I by Karl R. Popper

Chapter PI Materialism Transcends Itself 3

1. Kant's Argument . . . . . . . 3
2. Men and Machines . . . . . . 4
3. Materialism Transcends Itself 5
4. Remarks on the Term "Real" 9
5. Materialism, Biology, and Mind 11
6. Organic Evolution . . . . . . . 11
7. Nothing New Under the Sun. Reductionism and "Downward Causation" 14
8. Emergence and its Critics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
9. Indeterminism; the Interaction of Levels of Emergence . . . . . . . . .. 32

Chapter P2 The Worlds 1, 2 and 3 36

10. Interaction; The Worlds 1,2 and 3 36
11. The Reality of World 3 . . . . . . 38
12. Unembodied World 3 Objects . . 41
13. Grasping a World 3 Object 43
14. The Reality of Unembodied World 3 Objects 46
15. World 3 and the Mind-Body Problem 47

Chapter P3 Materialism Criticized .. 51

16. Four Materialist or Physicalist Positions .. 51
17. Materialism and the Autonomous World 3 56
18. Radical Materialism or Radical Behaviourism 60
19. Panpsychism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
20. Epiphenomenalism.............. 72
21. A Revised Form of J. B. S. Haldane's Refutation of Materialism 75
22. The So-called Identity Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
23. Does the Identity Theory Escape the Fate of Epiphenomenalism? 86
24. A Critical Note on Parallelism. The Identity Theory as a Form of
Parallelism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
25. Additional Remarks on Some Recent Materialist Theories 93
26. The New Promissory Materialism 96
27. Results and Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
XIV
Chapter P4 Some Remarks on the Self 100
28. Introduction . . . . . . . 100
29. Selves........... 101
30. The Ghost in the Machine 104
31. Learning to be a Self . . . 108
32. Individuation....... 112
33. Self-Identity: The Self and Its Brain 115
34. The Biological Approach to Human Knowledge and Intelligence 120
35. Consciousness and Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
36. The Biological Function of Conscious and Intelligent Activity 125
37. The Integrative Function of Consciousness . . . . . . . . . 127
38. The Continuity of the Self . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
39. Learning from Experience: The Natural Selection of Theories 132
40. Criticism of the Theory of Unconditioned and Conditioned Reflexes 135
41. Kinds of Memory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
42. The Self Anchored in World 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Chapter P5 Historical Comments on the Mind-Body Problem 148

43. The History of Our Picture of the Universe . . . . . 148
44. A Problem to be Solved by What Follows . . . . . . 151
45. The Prehistoric Discovery of the Self and of World 2 153
46. The Mind-Body Problem in Greek Philosophy 159
47. Conjectural versus Ultimate Explanation . . . . . . 171
48. Descartes: A Shift in the Mind-Body Problem . . . . 176
49. From Interactionism to Parallelism: The Occasionalists and Spinoza 181
50. Leibniz's Theory of Mind and Matter: From Parallelism to Identity 184
51. Newton, Boscovich, Maxwell: The End of Ultimate Explanation 189
52. The Association of Ideas as an Ultimate Explanation . 194
53. Neutral Monism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
54. The Identity Theory After Leibniz: From Kant to Feigl 199
55. Linguistic Parallelism . . . . 202
56. A Final Look at Materialism 205
Chapter P6 Summary 209
Bibliography to Part I 211

PART II by John C. Eccles

Preface . . . . . . . . . 225

Chapter El The Cerebral Cortex 227

1. Resume . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
2. Anatomical Introduction . . . . 229
3. The Columnar Arrangement and the Modular Concept of the
Cerebral Cortex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
4. Modular Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
4.1 Patterns of Module Action and Interaction 242
5. The Connectivities of Cortical Areas 244
6. Connectivities of the Limbic System 247

Chapter E2 Conscious Perception 250

7. Resume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
 xv
8. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
9. Cutaneous Perception (Somaethesis) 253
9.1 Pathways to Primary Sensory Area in Cortex 253
9.2 Temporal Analysis of Cutaneous Perception. 256
9.3 Secondary and Tertiary Sensory Areas. . . . 259
10. Visual Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
10.1 Retina to Primary Visual Area in Cortex 261
to.2 Stages in Reconstitution of the Visual Image 264
to.3 The Perceived Visual Image .. . . . . . . . 270
11. Auditory Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
12. Olfactory Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
13. Emotional Colouring of Conscious Perceptions 273
14. Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Chapter E3 Voluntary Movement 275
15. Resume..... 275
16. Introduction . . . 276
17. The Motor Unit . 277
18. The Motor Cortex 280
19. Voluntary Movement 282
20. The Cerebellar Controls of Voluntary Movement 286
20.1 The aosed Loop via the Pars Intermedia of the Cerebellum 288
20.2 The Open-Loop System via the Cerebellar Hemispheres .. 289
21. The Open-Loop Circuits via the Basal Ganglia . . . . . . . 290
22. Synthesis of the Various Neuronal Mechanisms Concerned in the
Control of Voluntary Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
23. General Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Chapter E4 The Language Centres of the Human Brain 295
24. Resume... 295
25. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . 296
26. Aphasia . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
27. Experiments on Exposed Brains 300
28. Intracarotid Injections of Sodium Amytal 301
29. The Dichotic Listening Test . . . . . . . 302
30. The Self-Conscious Mind and Speech .. 304
31. Anatomical Substrates of Speech Mechanisms 305
32. The Acquisition of Language . . . . . . . . 309
Chapter E5 Global Lesions of the Human Cerebrum 311
33. Resume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
34. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
35. Investigations on the Human Brain After Commissural Section-
Commissurotomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
36. Discussion on Commissurotomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
37. Investigations on the Human Cerebrum after Gross Lesions and
Hemispherectomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
38. Discussion on Hemispherectomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
39. Summary of Linguistic Abilities Disclosed by Global Lesions 333
Chapter E6 Circumscribed Cerebral Lesions 334
40. Resume . . . 334
41. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
XVI
42. Temporal Lobe Lesions 336
43. Parietal Lobe Lesions 341
44. Occipital Lobe Lesions . 344
45. Frontal Lobe Lesions .. 345
46. The Limbic System . . . 349
47. The Dominant and Minor Hemispheres 350
Chapter E7 The Self-Conscious Mind and the Brain 355
48. Resume............... 355
49. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
50. Self-Conscious Mind and the Brain . . . . . . . . . . . 358
51. Hypothesis of Interaction of Self-Conscious Mind and the Liaison Brain 361
52. The Hypothesis of Cortical Modules and the Self-Conscious Mind 365
53. Sleep, Dreams and Various Forms of Unconsciousness 370
54. Plasticity of "Open" Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
55. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Chapter E8 Conscious Memory: The Cerebral Processes Concerned
in Storage and Retrieval 377
56. Resume.............................. 377
57. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
58. Structural and Functional Changes Possibly Related to Memory 380
59. The So-called Growth Theory of Learning. . . . . . . . . . . 385
60. The Role of the Self-Conscious Mind in Short-Term Memory. 388
61. The Role of the Hippocampus in Learning and Memory 390
62. Hypothesis of Neuronal Happenings in Memory Storage 394
63. Memory Retrieval . . . . . . . . . . 399
64. Durations of Memories . . . . . . . . 402
65. Plastic Responses of Cerebral Cortex 403
66. Retrograde Amnesia . . . . . . . . . 405
Bibliography to Part II ................ . 407

PART III Dialogues Between the Two Authors

Dialogue I .. 425
Dialogue II . 437
Dialogue III 449
Dialogue IV 461
Dialogue V . 471
Dialogue VI 485
Dialogue VII 498
Dialogue VIII 510
Dialogue IX 521
Dialogue X . 532
Dialogue XI 548
Dialogue XII 562

Bibliography to Part III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567

Index of Names . 569
Index of Subjects 577