Eccles' Model of the Self Controlling Its Brain: The Irrelevance of Dualist Interactionism

Abstract

Sir John Eccles wrote that Descartes' dualist-interactionism guided his scientific career, yet his scientific work reached far beyond the bounds of this or any other philosophical proposition. Indeed, the untestable, metaphysical foundation of dualism in all its forms conflict with scientific thinking. Thus, if Eccles had concentrated on spirit as distinct from matter, he would have positioned himself to discover a scientific theory of the self. To illustrate how this is possible, we compare such a theory—the Theory of Enformed Systems—with dualist-interactionism.