• Question: What type of impact do you think the great philosophers of the world had then ,and now after developing their ideas how has our perception of certain things e.g. the brain and space, changed throughout time due to history, religion, culture etc?

    Asked by kamile to Meeks, Pete, Stephen, Steve, Tom on 21 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Steve Roser

      Steve Roser answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      There’s a huge amount lurking in this question – really whether we listen to the thinkers or perhaps the do-ers of the world. I believe that we need both, but sometimes the thinkers can run away from what seems to be really going on, and sometime that can seem not very helpful. Sometimes the do-ers can make things without thinking through the implications (or even believing they should think about them…). Personally I tend to sit with the do-ers who do experiments. I think this has had the most profound impact – so if i think about the two great theories of teh 20th century, quantum mechanics and relativity, it is the former that has the biggest impact on out lives (nanosciences and electronics particularly) and the latter which is though of as the big idea.
      As to religion, culture and the rest…well have you got a few minutes?

    • Photo: Stephen Curry

      Stephen Curry answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      What a very, very, very deep question. I can’t say I’m much of an expert on philosophers but I wonder how much of an impact they have had on the world in comparison to the contributions of scientists?

      For example, it was the scientist Galileo who first pointed a telescope at the stars and planets and came up with evidence to challenge the assumption that the Earth was at the centre of the universe. And it was Darwin (and Wallace) who proposed the theory of evolution, suggesting by implication that humans are animals that have developed from a common ancestor with the great apes.

      Both of these observations have had (and are still having) the most enormous impact on what it means to be human and what is our place in the universe. These in turn have caused many philosophers to adjust their views and to try to work out what it all means.

    • Photo: Tom Hartley

      Tom Hartley answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Hi Kamile,

      This is a tough, university-style question. I hope you’re planning to go to University…

      I am not an expert on philosophy, and in many ways I wish I knew more about it. I think philosophers have made a big contribution to ideas about the brain and space (but not until recently, not both together). For example, O’Keefe and Nadel (two neuroscientists who came up with one of the most influential theories of space and the brain) wrote a chapter on earlier theories (which were mainly philosophical). You can read it here (it’s pretty hard going IMHO):

      http://www.cognitivemap.net/HCMpdf/Ch1.pdf

      Culture does affect our ideas about space. For example in England we tend to say “go to the bus stop, then turn right”, whereas in America (where they have a grid like street layout in many cities) they tend to say “go to the bus stop then turn north”. There is a big difference in our brains between the way we represent the idea of “right” and “left” (relative to our bodies) and the way we represent “north” and “south” (which are relative to the world). This is a rather anecdotal example, but there are clearer cases from less familiar cultures where people relate locations to compass directions or prominent features in the outside world rather than themselves.

      So this is a slightly meandering answer, and I am not sure it really gets to the point. Are you happy with it, or do I need to say more? I was thinking about space in the abstract (e.g., where things are) rather than as meaning the empty void beyond the atmosphere.

    • Photo: Marieke Navin

      Marieke Navin answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Wow, what a huge questions Kamile! It’s interesting because the first scientists were philosphers, it was a long time before people actually thought to *do* an experiment. Galileo was the first to think it. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle thought that heavier things fell faster than light things, and everyone believed this. No-one thought to actually *try* it until Galileo did his famous experiment – he dropped cannonballs off the side of the leaning tower of Pisa (well, so the story goes!) and found out that everything accelerates at the same rate, regardless of its mass.

      I think things are different now, for example in my science career I have never, ever studied, thought of or come across any philosophy – they seem quite separate to me, which is a shame.

      I’m not sure if that answers your question, but it is some thoughts anyway 🙂

Comments

  • Photo: kamile

    kamile commented on :

    Thank you all for the answers, they’ve most definetely made me question this myself in a more philosophical way.
    Thanks tom for the university comment; i do plan to go to uni (hopefully oxford in the psychology unit) and the fact that the first scientists were philosphers explains so much about our world today!

  • Photo: Tom

    Tom commented on :

    Good on you, Kamile. So pleased you’re planning to go to Uni, Oxford (of course) is a fantastic place to study Psychology. Best of luck.