Hegel's Philosophy of Mind — Georg Hegel — John Shaqi
Hegel's Philosophy of Mind
Georg Hegel · en
It is partly a desire of keeping up to date which is responsible for the
copious extracts or abstracts from treatises on the anatomy and functions
of the nerve-system, which, accompanied perhaps by a diagram of the brain,
often form the opening chapter of a work on psychology. Even if these
researches had achieved a larger number of authenticated results than they
as yet have, they would only form an appendix and an illustration to the
proper subject(42). As they stand, and so long as they remain largely
hypothetical, the use of them in psychology only fosters the common
delusion that, when we can picture out in material outlines a theory
otherwise unsupported, it has gained some further witness in its favour.
It is quite arguable indeed that it may be useful to cut out a section
from general human biology which should include the parts of it that were
specially interesting in connexion with the expression or generation of
thought, emotion, and desire. But in that case, there is a blunder in
singling out the brain alone, and especially the organs of sense and
voluntary motion,—except for the reason that this province of
psycho-physics alone has been fairly mapped out. The preponderant half of
the soul’s life is linked to other parts of the physical system. Emotion
and volition, and the general tone of the train of ideas, if they are to
be connected with their expression and physical accompaniment (or aspect),
would require a sketch of the heart and lungs, as well as the digestive
system in general. Nor these alone. Nerve analysis (especially confined to
the larger system), though most modern, is not alone important, as Plato
and Aristotle well saw. So that if biology is to be adapted for
psychological use (and if psychology deals with more than cognitive
processes), a liberal amount of physiological information seems required.