The Self and Self-Knowledge: An Introduction to the Science of Mind - Prof. Kurowski, Slides of History of Sociological Knowledge

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The self and self-

knowledge

Lecture 1

Let’s start with a fun exercise :

1. What is a self or personal identity to you?

(to answer this question you can write, draw,

list, or whatever you feel is most appropriate)

2. What knowledge(personal, psychological,

scientific, etc.) did you use to answer #1?

Background cont’d

• (^) Unique human feature: self-awareness= the biology of brain
• 86 billion neurons
• trillions of synapses
• synapses: change due to experience(environment), neural plasticity(learn, adopt)
• Aplysia: simple invertebrate

• neurological and psychiatric disorders: depression, schizophrenia, bipolar, Alzheimer, PTSD, Autism– all have biological and neuronal basis, but also environmental

Background cont’d

• Via studying pathologies of human mind and

brain, we learn how we function, and our brains,

in non-pathological states.

* this is the theme of the book and the whole

course.

In other words:

• How does the self change or comes undone,

when the brain is under stress, trauma, or

disorder?

• What is the self?

Phineas Gage

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Subjective vs. inter-personal

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Cont’d

• (^) Emil Kraepelin(German):
• psychiatric illness: genetic and biological basis or

origin

• disorders: study initial manifestations, clinical

development over time and long-term outcomes

• inspired by Broca and Wernicke

Broca and Wernicke

• Specific neurological disorders can be traced to specific regions of the brain
• groundwork for modern brain science
• (^) Broca’s patient: Leborgne:
• syphilis
• understood speech and writing
• no comprehensible language output, including writing
• autopsy: damage to forward left part of brain (Broca’s area)
• “ we speak with the left hemisphere.”

Wernicke’s and Broca’s

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Neurons

Neurons

Neurons