Can Neuroscientists Test a New Physicalist Mind/Body View: DiCoToP (Diachronic Conjunctive Token Physicalism)?

Linda A W Brakel

doi:10.3389/fnhum.2021.786133

Can Neuroscientists Test a New Physicalist Mind/Body View: DiCoToP (Diachronic Conjunctive Token Physicalism)?

Front Hum Neurosci. 2021 Dec 17:15:786133. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.786133. eCollection 2021.

Author

Linda A W Brakel^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Philosophy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.
² Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States.
³ Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute, Farmington Hills, MI, United States.

Abstract

Given that disparate mind/body views have interfered with interdisciplinary research in psychoanalysis and neuroscience, the mind/body problem itself is explored here. Adding a philosophy of mind framework, problems for both dualists and physicalists are presented, along with essential concepts including: independent mental causation, emergence, and multiple realization. To address some of these issues in a new light, this article advances an original mind/body account-Diachronic Conjunctive Token Physicalism (DiCoToP). Next, puzzles DiCoTop reveals, psychoanalytic problems it solves, and some empirical evidence accrued for views consistent with DiCoToP are presented. In closing, this piece challenges/appeals for neuroscience research to gain evidence for (or against) the DiCoToP view.

Keywords: Diachronic Conjunctive Token Physicalism; emergence; mental causation; mind/body problem; multiple realization; neuronal assembly; token physicalism.