Sir Charles Sherrington and the nature of mind

Abstract

Sir Charles Sherrington (1857-1952) has played a privileged role in the history of Neurophysiology. His main contribution is based on his discovery of the «integrative function of the nervous system», the development of which synthesizes some of his important experimental results concerning the study of inhibitory and excitatory actions. However, it is less known that Sherrington cultivated a deep passion for philosophy, history (he wrote a biography of the 16th century French physician Jean Fernel), and literature (especially, Goethe’s poetry; Sherrington himself composed numerous verses, published in works like The Assaying of Brabantius and other Verse, de 1925). His broad philosophical interests were condensed in Man on His Nature, which contains his Gifford Lectures, given at the University of Edinburgh between May 1947 and June 1938. Its conceptual scope and its implications for the contemporary debate on the mind-body problem are analyzed in this paper, which aims to examine Sherrington’s ideas about the nature of the human mind.