The Neurodynamic Soul

"The Neurodynamic Soul is fascinating and thought provoking. An especially compelling theme is how individuals go on to reorganise and persist in the face of neural loss and extreme neural pathology." —Professor Elaine Reese, Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Aparangi, Department of Psychology, University of Otago This book is an analysis and discussion of the soul as a psychophysical process and its role in mental representation, meaning, understanding and agency. Grant Gillett and Walter Glannon combine contemporary neuroscience and philosophy to address fundamental issues about human existence and living and acting in the world. Based in part on Aristotle's hylomorphic model of the psyche, their approach is informed by a neuroscientific model of the brain as a dynamic organ in which patterns of neural oscillation and synchronization are shaped by biological, social and cultural factors both inside and outside it. The authors provide a richer and more robust account of the soul, or mind, than other accounts by framing it in neuroscientific and philosophical terms that do not explain it away but explain it as something that is shaped by how it responds to the natural and social environment in enabling flexible and adaptive behavior. Grant Gillett is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Neuroscience, Otago University. Walter Glannon is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Calgary.