Table Of ContentI
HEIDELBER6 SCIENCE LlBRARY Yolume 13
John C. Eccles
Facing Reality
Philosophical Adventures by a Brain Scientist
With 36 Figures
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH 1975
Professor Sir lohn C. EccJes,
Department of Physiology,
State University of New York at Buffalo
School of Medicine and Dentistry, Buffalo, NY 14214/USA
This is a reprint of the first edition published 1970.
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© by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heldelberg 1970. Library of Congress Calalog Card Number
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Originally published by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York in 1970.
ihe use of general descriptlve names, Irade names, Irade marks, elc. In Ihis publicalion,
even If Ihe former are not especially identifled, Is not 10 be laken as a sign Ihal such
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ISBN 978-0-387-90014-8 ISBN 978-1-4757-3997-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4757-3997-8
For Helena
Preface
The titling of this book - "Facing Reality" - came to me unbidden,
presumably from my subconscious! But, when it came, it seemed to be
right, because that essentially is what I am trying to do in this book.
" Facing" is to be understood in the sense of "looking at in a steadfast
and unflinching manner". It thus contrasts with "Confronting" which
has the sense of "looking at with hostility and defiance". As I face life
with its joys and its sorrows, its successes and its failures, its peace and
its turmoil, my attitude is one of serene acceptance and gratitude and not
one of angry and arrogant confrontation and rejection.
The other component of the title - "Reality" - is the ultimate
reality for each of us as conscious beings - our birth - our self-hood
in its long stream of becoming throughout our life - our death and
apparent annihilation. This is the Reality that we each of us must face
if we are to live and adventure as free and responsible beings and not
as mere playthings of chance and circumstance, going through a mean
ingless farce from birth to death with the search ever for distraction and
self-forgetfulness.
As a brain scientist I have specialist knowledge of that wonderful
part of the body that is alone concerned in the whole Iife-Iong interplay
between the conscious self and the extern al world, including other selves.
There will be a critical account of the way the brain receives from the
world and the way it acts on it, and also of the possible synaptic mech
anisms of memory - both storage and retrieval. But more importantly
there will be a philosophical treatment of the age-old problems of the
liaison between the brain and the conscious self, as uniquely known
directly to each one of us, with its amazing continuity and unity. And
this relationship of brain to conscious self in turn leads on to a con
sideration of the religious concept of the soul and the possibility of a
deeper meaning in personal life that we at present may not be able to
discern after the last century of philosophical and religious catharsis.
My life-Iong experience as a scientist has prompted me to discuss the
nature of science and the making of scientists. It can be claimed that in
our civilization science represents the highest creative activity of man,
VII
and it provides our best hope of winning through to a deeper under
standing of the nature and meaning of existence. Philosophy must again
become receptive to the ongoing scientific disputations ; hence scientists
have to dare to talk philosophically, though we must be attentive to the
criticisms of those philosophers who are searching also for a common
language to express a philosophy that is fully cognizant of science.
After the radiance and optimism of the first few years of this century,
European civilization has been overwhelmed by a succession of disasters
with only brief respites, as in the twenties. I look with forboding at the
future of our European civilization. Violent irrationalism captures and
enslaves so many of the so-called intellectuals - old as weIl as young.
I reject all this darkness and evil that seems to overwhelm uso However,
in this book, my whole effort has been directed positively in the attempt
to build upon the magnificent heritage of our civilization with its ration
ality and its beauty. My hope is that I may restore to my fellow men a
sense of the wonder and mystery of their own personal existence on this
beautiful planet that is ours. I hope that I can inspire them with the
courage to adventure wisely in achieving a new illumination in the last
decades of this turbulent century.
My very good friend, Doctor HEINZ GÖTZE, President of Springer
Verlag, encouraged me to collect various lectures and edit them for
publication in the Heidelberg Science Library. In addition I have added
various sections and even some whole chapters of unpublished material
in order to give some form to the ensemble. I wish to acknowledge with
gratitude the permissions kindly given to reprint from previously pub
lished lectures as noted in the beginning of some chapters.
My wife, HELENA, has helped me in every aspect of this work with
the texts, with the figures and with the indexing. I wish to thank my
assistant, Miss VIRGINIA MUNIAK, for the preparation of the manuscript,
in which she was helped by Mrs. CLAUDIA LEY, and Mr. JOSEPH W ALDRON
for the photography.
I express my grateful thanks to Doctors BARONDES, COLONNIER,
HAMORI, HELD, HUBEL, JANSEN, JUNG, LIBET, L0MO, PALAY, PENFIELD,
PHILLIPS, SPERRY, SZENTAGOTHAI and VALVERDE for kindly allowing me
to reproduce figures from their papers and for making original figures
available for reproduction.
My special thanks go to the publishers for their unfailing courtesy
and for their extraordinary efficiency.
Buffalo, July 1970 J ohn C. Eccles
VIII
Table of Contents
Chapter I Introduction: Man, Brain and Science ...... .
Chapter Il The Neuronal Machinery of the Brain. . . . . .. 8
Neurophysiological Events Relation to Perception 22
Chapter IU Synaptic Mechanisms Possibly Concerned in Learning
and Memory. . . . . 25
Introduction. . . . . . . . . 25
Molecular Memory. . . . . . 26
Synaptic Properties and Memory 28
Frequeney Potentiation . . . . 29
Post-Tetanie Potentiation . . . . 31
Synaptie Regression with Disuse . 33
Diseussion of Growth Theory of Learning . 37
Bioehemieal Meehanisms in Synaptie Growth 39
The Engram and its Readout 41
Summary. . . . . 42
Chapter IV The Experiencing Self. . 44
The Coneept of Self 44
Conseious Experienee . 46
The Pereeptual World. 47
The Objective-Subjeetive Diehotomy 52
Pereeption and the Neuronal Mechanisms of the
Brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Cerebral Events and Conscious Experience 58
The Prineiples of Emergenee. . . . . . . 59
Scienee and Reality. . . . . . . . . . . 60
Chapter V The Brain and the Unity of Conscious Experienee 63
The Reality of Conseious Experienee . . . .. 63
Pereeptual Experienee. . . . . . . . . . .. 65
The Dependence of Perception on Active Learning 66
Anatomical and Physiologieal Basis of Conscious
Experienee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
IX
The Threshold of Conscious Experience . . . . . 69
The Neuronal Activity Concerned in Conscious
Experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Unity of Conscious Experience and the Cerebra 1
Commissures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Does the Uniqueness of the Experiencing Self Derive
from Genetic Uniqueness? . 80
General Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Chapter VI Evolution and the Conscious Self . 85
Introduction. . . . . . . . . 85
The Modern Theory of Evolution 87
Transcendences in the Evolutionary Story 87
Human Self-Awareness or Conscious Experience 90
The Evolutionary Story of Man's Origin. . . . . 92
Criteria for Self-Consciousness 01' Self-Awareness 93
How did Self-Consciousness Come to Man? 96
The Uniqueness of Man's Origin 97
Life Elsewhere in the Cosmos? . 98
General Considerations . . 100
Chapter VII The Understanding of Nature 102
Science as Conjectures and Refutations 102
Science as a Personal Endeavour . 103
Personal Experiences 104
The Nature of Scientific Investigation . 106
Illustrations from Neurobiological Investigations 108
Scientific Diseases 114
General Summary 117
Chapter VIII Man, Freedom and Creativity 118
1. Free-Will . 118
The Neurophysiological Problem of Will 120
Quantitative Aspect of Spread of Activity in
Neuronal Networks 120
A Neurophysiological Hypothesis of Will . 123
The Physical Implications of the Hypothesis . 125
General Discussion of Hypothesis of Free-Will 126
2. Freedom and Creativity 127
3. Man and Freedom . 130
x
Chapter IX The Necessity of Freedom for the Free FIowering of
Science . . . . . . . . . 135
Science and Technology . 135
The Making of a Scientist 138
The Discipline of Science 142
Freedom and Science 146
Chapter X The Brain and the Soul 151
1. Introduction 151
2. The Neuronal Mechanisms Involved in Percep-
tion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
3. States of Consciousness. . . . . . . 160
4. The Three-W orId Concept of Popper . 163
5. The WorId of States of Consciousness 170
6. Self Awareness and Death Awareness . 172
7. The Concept of the Soul . . . . . . 173
Chapter XI Education and the WorId of Objective Knowledge . 176
1. Popper's Third World of Objective Knowledge 176
2. Education and the Third WorId 179
The Student Discontents 182
Education for the Future 184
Chapter XII Epilogue 188
References . 191
Subject Index 201
Acknowledgments
Grateful thanks are due to the publishers and editors of the following journals for
their generosity in giving permission for reproduction of figures: Acta Biologica
Hungarica, Brain Research, The Clarendon Press, Experimental Brain Research,
Experimental Cell Research, Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology,
Journal of Physiology, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, Progress in Brain Research, Science, Scientific
American.
XI
Description:The titling of this book - "Facing Reality" - came to me unbidden, presumably from my subconscious! But, when it came, it seemed to be right, because that essentially is what I am trying to do in this book. " Facing" is to be understood in the sense of "looking at in a steadfast and unflinching mann
