2017 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
The tools of contemporary Japanese neuroscience: a cultural and philosophical approach
| Project/Area Number |
16F16301
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| Research Institution | Rikkyo University |
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Principal Investigator |
河野 哲也 立教大学, 文学部, 教授 (60384715)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
GAILLARD MAXENCE 立教大学, 文学部, 外国人特別研究員
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| Project Period (FY) |
2016-10-07 – 2019-03-31
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| Keywords | 科学哲学 / 技術哲学 / 科学のツール / 脳科学の哲学 / 脳神経倫理学 |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The goal of this project in philosophy of science is to develop a philosophical approach of scientific instruments, with a focus on the instruments of neuroscience. According to the classical view, tools are defined by their function in a specific context of use and are neutral regarding scientific theories and scientific concepts. Here, I try to integrate recent approaches from different fields which are challenging this common view.
This year, the main developments of this research were presented and discussed at several meetings in Japan and Europe. At the Society for Philosophy and Technology Conference in Darmstadt (Germany), I discussed several criteria of the individuation of scientific instruments as technological objects. At the congress of the International Society for the History of Neuroscience in Besancon (France), I discussed the respective role of tools and paradigms of scientific change. At the congress of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology in Tokyo, I discussed the potential contribution of psychology of tools for a better philosophical understanding of scientific instruments.
I took also the opportunity of a series of workshops in Tokyo and Kyoto to deepen the investigation on several aspects of brain science and psychiatry in Japan. Two papers have been written. The first one presents an original typology of beliefs regarding the status of the brain in the definition of human nature. The second one investigates Tojisha research in psychiatry and its epistemological implications for medicine.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
Research has been conducted in two main directions. First, to elaborate of a philosophical framework for understanding the role and nature of scientific instruments. Second, to collect case studies in the history of neuroscience and contemporary laboratory technology.
This year was also a time of interactions with researchers from various fields. Several theoretical options for the philosophy of scientific instruments have been explored in an interdisciplinary perspective.
Two symposiums have been organized. During the biennial congress of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology at Rikkyo University, I organized the session “Science of tools and tools of science,” dedicated to the contribution of general discussions on tool use to the way we think scientific instruments. During the annual congress of the Philosophy of Science Society Japan at the University of Tokyo, we organized the symposium “The brain between nature and culture,” crossing viewpoints on philosophical and ethical questions related to brain research and the specific status of the brain as an organ of the body.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
During the remaining months of this fellowship, I will focus on the interaction between the body and technology in neuroscience laboratory research. Neuroscience produces knowledge of the body: in the laboratory, tools are used to observe and measure the body, especially the brain. But tools are not neutral, for instance when they impose some constraints on the body. Working with instruments in a laboratory is a dual process of adjusting the bodies to the tools available and of improving tools to obtain better conditions of observation. I will compare different lines of technological research and describe the constitution of an instrumental strategy, or instrumental trajectory, at several levels.
I will take part in the World Congress of Philosophy (Beijing, China). We are organizing a round-table on the notion of embodiement with philosophers from France, Japan, and China. The notion of embodiement is widely put to use in the philosophy of cognitive science today, but its theoretical significance has not attracted enough attention.
We plan also to take part in the Society for Social Studies of Science conference in Sydney with a workshop on transnational and interdisciplinary ethics of science. I will present a paper questioning the globalization of neuroethics, following my previous work on the development of neuroethics in Japan.
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