Pragmatism and the Search for Coherence in Neuroscience

We have known for over a thousand years that the brain underlies behavioral expression, but effective scientific study of the brain is only very recent. In Pragmatism and the Search for Coherence in Neuroscience, two things converge: a great respect for neuroscience and its many variations, and a sense of investigation and inquiry demythologized. Schulkin seeks to anchor inquiry about neuroscience to objects and adaptation, whilst also showing that neuroscience is symbolic of the very Socratic idea to 'know thyself,' as the brain is that very organ that renders such knowledge possible. Think of it as foraging for coherence.

In 1978 Schulkin entered graduate school in philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and received a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience at that same university in 1983. His work was on the brain and neural endocrine systems that underlie behavioral adaptation (e.g. appetitive and consummatory behaviors).

He has received an number of awards including a MacArthur Foundation post-doctoral award through the University of Pennsylvania, a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Mental Health, and a Program Project Award from the National Institute of Mental Health. This work was done at the University of Pennsylvania and at Rockefeller University and then later at the National Institute of Mental Health and at Georgetown University.

Schulkin is the author of number of papers and books, including Social Sensibility and Neural Function (MIT), Bodily Sensibility and Neural Function (Oxford), Rethinking Homeostasis (MIT), Action Perception and the Brain (Palgrave) Naturalism and Pragmatism (Palgrave) Reflections on the Musical Mind (Princeton) Cognitive Adaptation (Cambridge). Presently Schulkin is Research Professor, Department of Neuroscience at Georgetown.

Introduction: Beginnings
1. Foraging and Neuroscience
2. An Aura of Neuroscience
3. Growth and Knowledge
4. A Field Expanding
5. Great Expectations
6. Neurological Conditions and Their Treatment
7. Neuroscience and Culture
Conclusion