The Physical Foundations of Biology and the Problem of Psychophysics

Ratio (Misc.) 12:47-64 (1970)
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Abstract

Full applicability of physics to human biology does not necessarily imply that one can uncover a comprehensive, algorithmic correlation between physical brain states and corresponding mental states. The argument takes into account that information processing is finite in principle in a finite world. Presumbly the brain-mind-relation cannot be resolved in all essential aspects, particularly when high degrees of abstraction or self-analytical processes are involved. Our conjecture plausibly unifies the universal validity of physics and a logical limitation of human thought, and it does not regard consciousness -the most basic human experience - as a marginal phenomenon.

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Alfred Gierer
Max-Planck-Institute of Developmental Biology, Tuebingen, Germany

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