Assignment No: 01
History & Contributions of philosophers
Submitted By: Iqra Jehangir
Submitted to: Dr. Muneeb Ahmad Toor
Roll No:24020349-016
Program: MS Clinical Psychology
International institute of scince arts and technology
Behavioral Neuroscience
Contribution & history of philosophers in Neuroscience
Edwin Smith (1600 B.C)
He is Known as the surgical papyrus. He provides the objective details of brain anatomy. He paid
attention to the management of battle field damages.
Plato (420 -347)
He is the one of the great Greek philosophers. The Republic is his one of the greatest contributions in the
field of knowledge. Plato classify the view of soul as three parts: appetitive, spiritual and rational. He
believed that reasoning should rule over all your feelings like hunger, thirst etc.
Paul D. MacLean (1913–2007)
Paul D. Maclean is the Neurologist and American physician. In the 1960 he postulated that three
separate brains that coexist in human beings now evolved successively during evolution.
Aristotle (384-322 BC)
Aristotle believed that brain is just cold and bloodless radiator that cooled down the passion of heart.
Actually, it is the heart that is responsible for all emotions. He rejected that the study of soul falls in its
entirety to the natural scientist and insists that the mind may not be enmeshed in the body in the same way
as other sorts of states such as happiness, anger, and joy.
Hippocrates (460-380)
He is considered the father of western Medicine. He believes that the intelligence comes from the brain.
So, the brain has the greatest power over us. He was the first who proposed that thoughts, sensation,
emotions and behaviors are guided by the brain. He saw mind, brain and body as unity. He also wrote a
book on epilepsy.
Galen
He is Roman physician and has long lasting impact regarding the understanding of nervous system. He
also had an influence on the modern medicines. He developed a theory known as The Cell Doctrine. He
proposed that the brain is the large clot of phlegm.
Socrates (470-399)
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Behavioral Neuroscience
Socrates, who started active debates to make a detail search for information into the nature of the
world and humanity, is largely responsible for the glory of Greek thinking.
Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564)
Andreas is a brilliant surgeon along with the great artist. He paved the foundation of anatomy
and even his ideas are accepted today. He denied and challenged the work of Galen regarding the
fluid and activities of the brain. His artistic mind improved the knowledge of anatomy. He also
wrote a book "On the Fabric of the Human Body". This book contains over 250 anatomical
illustrations.
Rene Descartes (1596–1650)
He is regarded as the Father of Modern Philosophy. He separates the mind and the body. He
considers mind as a spirit and body as mechanical system. He picked the pineal gland as a logical
place for mind. Although he was wrong about the pineal gland and the separation of mind from body,
but he also did introduce the idea about how the mind, body, and brain are engaged in an interacting
system.
Luigi Galvani (1729–1798):
He was an Italian physician and physicist. He discovers the idea of electrical properties of the
nervous system. He accidently found that electrical energy drives muscle movement, coined the
term "animal electricity", and believed in a fluid that carries electrical energy through nerves.
This discovery revolutionized our understanding of the nervous system and bioelectric forces in
living tissue.
Johannes Peter Muller (1801–1858)
He is a German physiologist, made important contributions to the field of physiology. He proposed the
law of specific nerve energies, which states that different senses respond differently to electrical
stimulation due to the specific sensory pathway. He also believed that sensation is a result of the nervous
system's state, not the external stimulus
Franz Joseph Gall (1758–1828)
He linked the brain structures to functions, claiming specific mental faculties were localized in certain
brain areas. He believed head shape reflected brain shape, and brain size, shape, and weight revealed
mental traits. He was later debunked due to lack of evidence, oversimplification, and incorrect
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Behavioral Neuroscience
assumptions (e.g., brain size doesn't equal intelligence). Despite this, phrenology inspired further research
into brain localization and the mind-body connection.
Paul Broca (1825–1880)
The Broca's region is recognized as the site where language is localized in the left hemisphere.
This discovery was made possible by a few circumstances, without which we could not have
connected this brain area to language.
Alexander Luria (1902–1977) and Hugh Lings Jackson (1835–1911)
Hugh Lings Jackson and Alexander Luria were neurologists. Jackson proposed that mental functions are a
combination of simpler skills integrating together. The Luria developed an integrative theory of the brain,
dividing it into three functional units. They recognized both localization of functions and holistic
interaction of brain areas. Their theories emphasize the importance of understanding the mind-brain
connection as a combination of localization and holism.
Santiago Ramon y Cajal (1852–1934):
He is a Spanish pathologist and histologist, who many consider the father of modern neuroscience. He
proposed the structure and Function of whole nervous system. His theory, contrasting with Golgi's
Reticular Theory, established the neuron as the fundamental unit of the nervous system, laying the
foundation for modern neuroscience.
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