Indeterminism in Neurobiology

I examine different arguments that could be used to establish indeterminism of neurological processes. Even though scenarios where single events at the molecular level make the difference in the outcome of such processes are realistic, this falls short of establishing indeterminism, because it is no...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhilosophy of science Vol. 72; no. 5; pp. 663 - 674
Main Author Weber, Marcel
Format Journal Article Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published Chicago, IL The University of Chicago Press 01.12.2005
University of Chicago Press
Cambridge University Press
Subjects
Academic discipline
Biologism
Biology
Brain
Determinism
Epistemology. Philosophy of science. Theory of knowledge
Human development
Indeterminism
Ion channels
Methodology
Molecular biology
Molecules
Neurobiology
Neurology
Neurons
Neurotransmitters
Philosophy
Philosophy of science
Quantum mechanics
Quantum theory
Science
Scientific research
Social values
Uncertainty
Indeterminism
Science philosophy
Biology
Neurobiology
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Summary:I examine different arguments that could be used to establish indeterminism of neurological processes. Even though scenarios where single events at the molecular level make the difference in the outcome of such processes are realistic, this falls short of establishing indeterminism, because it is not clear that these molecular events are subject to quantum mechanical uncertainty. Furthermore, attempts to argue for indeterminism autonomously (i.e., independently of quantum mechanics) fail, because both deterministic and indeterministic models can account for the empirically observed behavior of ion channels.
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ISSN:0031-8248
1539-767X
DOI:10.1086/508106