Abstract

The topic of the reduction of mental processes to biophysical mechanisms touches at the core of the mind–body problem, a puzzle in the philosophy of mind since the days of Descartes. This book is about philosophical aspects of neuroscience, centred on perspective dualism. The topic unfolds in the discussion of mechanisms in world and mind. Neuronal mechanisms of differing complexity are described in a general way. It is shown how models of such mechanisms may be classified and assigned to levels of systems theory. Reduction strategies are applied to processes of life, mind, and consciousness. The aim is physicalistic, to explore if and how the mental may be understood in terms of biophysics and its mechanisms.