MBM · Making Biological Minds
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2016-05-01 → 2018-07-04
- EU contribution
- €183,455
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Making Biological Minds
The neurosciences are flourishing, while the relationship between the neurosciences and the humanities is not. Whereas some scholars have welcomed closer collaboration, much work attempting to bring the two together can seem off-putting or else preparatory to a larger engagement. These deficiencies in turn have generated widespread doubt that either side has anything to learn from the other. This project argues differently. After all, both disciplines are trying to understand one of deepest mysteries: human nature. Using state of the art techniques in the history and philosophy of science, the project shows that biological understandings of the mind arise when we come to see ourselves as deeply individual, outside of scientific study, and when the means of bettering our lives through politics seem to break down. But the project also argues that the mind has been studied by a variety of disciplines in the past, and there is no reason why they cannot again. But to do so requires us to address some fundamental questions: what is thought? How does it relate to the proxies we measure? How do we transform these proxies into scientific models? How do these models relate to our own sense of self? These are questions that the humanities are particularly suited to address. Provocatively, the project suggests that some of the high restrictions that neuroscientists place upon themselves in order to be scientific should be relaxed. This may not help produce answers, but with the help of humanists create much more insightful questions about ourselves.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The ER (Dr Sean Dyde) is a promising early career researcher, having obtained his PhD in 2014 and published 5 articles in top-tier journals and respected edited collections, whose main focus to date has been the history of the biomedical sciences.The PI (Professor Gregory Radick), has published extensively across the history of the human sciences, has experience leading national and international projects, and has engaged in many public engagement activities.The host institution (Leeds) is an internationally renowned centre of research with strengths in the history and philosophy of science.The project's overall objective is to use state of the art research in the history and philosophy of science to reposition current debates over the role of the neurosciences in defining human nature, by placing the relations between the sciences and the humanities into historical perspective. This project builds upon the ER's established research expertise in the history of the biomedical sciences, but with the support of the PI and the host institution, the scope of his work will be extended into the history of the humanities.The ER's 5-10 year career aim is to expand his areas of expertise into the history of the British human sciences and the history of German philosophy and medicine. This project maps a path to achieve this by connecting his existing expertise in the history of the biomedical sciences with the history of the humanities and the reception of German philosophical ideas into Britain during the nineteenth century. Europe remains a world-leader for research into the history and philosophy of science, and this project will allow the ER to progress in his academic career and consolidate links between English- and German-speaking scholars. Work produced by the project will be used by researchers in Europe as it will advance new historiographical positions, develop important connections between different sub-fields, and contribute to current debates.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS · LeedsCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union