Can the Two Cultures Reconcile? Reconstruction and Neuropragmatism

Abstract

The conflict between the sciences and the humanities results from an implicit endorsement by most scientists and humanists of representationalist theories of truth. I argue that a pragmatic account of truth, as modified by John Dewey’s notion of philosophical reconstruction, affords us the means of reaching rapprochement. I draw on the work of C. P. Snow, Jerome Kagan, and Edward Slingerland to develop a neurophilosophical pragmatist account of how to reconstruct the relationship between the two cultures. I draw on recent work on mirror neuron systems and suggest that a new metaphor for thinking about consciousness may serve well the reconstructive project.