Weber, Marcel (2004) Indeterminism in Neurobiology: Some Good and Some Bad News. In: UNSPECIFIED. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

I examine some philosophical arguments as well as current empirical research in molecular neurobiology in order to throw some new light on the question of whether neurological processes are deterministic or indeterministic. I begin by showing that the idea of an autonomous biological indeterminism violates the principle of the supervenience of biological properties on physical properties. If supervenience is accepted, quantum mechanics is the only hope for the neuro-indeterminist. But this would require that indeterministic quantum-mechanical effects play a role in the functioning of the nervous system. I examine several candidates of molecular processes where this could, in theory, be the case. It turns out that there is good news from recent work on ion channels. Unfortunately (for the indeterminist), this good news is neutralised at once by bad news.

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Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Weber, Marcel
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology
Depositing User:	Marcel Weber
Date Deposited:	14 Nov 2004
Last Modified:	07 Oct 2010 15:13
Item ID:	2072
Public Domain:	No
Conference Date:	17-20 November 2004
Conference Location:	Austin
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Biology
Date:	2004
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/2072

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• Indeterminism in Neurobiology: Some Good and Some Bad News. (deposited 14 Nov 2004) [Currently Displayed]
  • Indeterminism in Neurobiology. (deposited 15 Jan 2005)

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