Regions of the Mind: Brain Research and the Quest for Scientific Certainty - Hardcover

Star, Susan Leigh

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0804716730 ISBN 13: 9780804716734

Publisher: Stanford University Press, 1989

Synopsis

What is the relationship between scientific work and scientific theories? Are facts discovered or constructed? This book answers these questions in a novel manner. Early in the 1870s, and handful of London medical researchers - surgeons, pathologists, physiologists, and neurologists - envisioned a map of the brain that would match specific parts of the brain with unique, discrete functions (such as speech). They believed that such a map would solve an array of medical puzzles, including the cause and physical basis of epilepsy, aphasia, brain tumors, stroke, syphilis, and tuberculosis. These researchers were also bidding to answer the hotly debated questions on the nature of the relationship between brain and mind and the possibility of a biological explanation for complex human behaviours. Between 1870 and 1906, the 'localization' researchers encountered constant uncertainties in their work, most of which were scientific community ridiculed their efforts as neophrenology, notably those who upheld the rival diffusionist theory of the brain, which held that the brain works as an interactive whole.

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Review

'The great interest of Regions of the Mind lies in its bridging the gap between sociology and history in a way that contributes to the philosophy of science. Star does not use history to confirm and expand her sociology; rather, she elaborates, with her systematic treatment of procedures and processes, a way of handling both the detailed content of a discipline and its social or institutional achievements.' Bruno Latour, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines

About this edition

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0804716730
• ISBN 13: 9780804716734
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 296