Smith C U
Vision Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, B4 7ET, United Kingdom.
Brain Cogn. 1998 Feb;36(1):57-72. doi: 10.1006/brcg.1997.0954.
The year 1996 marked the quattrocentenary of Descartes' birth. This paper reviews his pineal neuropsychology. It demonstrates that Descartes understood the true anatomical position of the pineal. His intraventricular pineal (or glande H) was a theoretical construct which allowed him to describe the operations of his man-like "earthen machine." In the Treatise of Man he shows how all the behaviors of such machines could then be accounted for without the presence of self-consciousness. Infrahuman animals are "conscious automata." In Passions of the Soul he adds, but only for humans, self-consciousness to the machine. In a modern formulation, only humans not only know but know that they know.
1996年是笛卡尔诞辰四百周年。本文回顾了他的松果体神经心理学。文章表明，笛卡尔了解松果体的真实解剖位置。他提出的脑室内松果体（或H腺体）是一个理论概念，使他能够描述类人“土制机器”的运作方式。在《论人》中，他展示了在没有自我意识的情况下，这类机器的所有行为是如何得到解释的。低于人类的动物是“有意识的自动机”。在《灵魂的激情》中，他补充道，只有人类，这类机器才具有自我意识。用现代的说法，只有人类不仅知道，而且知道自己知道。
