The Physiology of Truth: Neuroscience and Human Knowledge

In this wide-ranging book, one of the boldest thinkers in modern neuroscience confronts an ancient philosophical problem: can we know the world as it really is?

Drawing on provocative new findings about the psychophysiology of perception and judgment in both human and nonhuman primates, and also on the cultural history of science, Jean-Pierre Changeux makes a powerful case for the reality of scientific progress and argues that it forms the basis for a coherent and universal theory of human rights. On this view, belief in objective knowledge is not a mere ideological slogan or a naïve confusion; it is a characteristic feature of human cognition throughout evolution, and the scientific method its most sophisticated embodiment. Seeking to reconcile science and humanism, Changeux holds that the capacity to recognize truths that are independent of subjective personal experience constitutes the foundation of a human civil society.

Author: Jean-Pierre Changeux
Publisher: Belknap Press
Published: 03/01/2009
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780674032606
Language: French

About the Author
Changeux, Jean-Pierre: - Jean-Pierre Changeux, author of the classic Neuronal Man, is Director of the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, Professor in the Collège de France, and a member of the French Academy of Sciences.