A philosopher looks at neuroscience.

The last two centuries, and the last fifty years in particular, have seen a dramatic increase in our understanding of the brain. More recently, philosophers have rekindled the debate about the nature of the mind and have begun to ask how and to what extent the features of the conscious mind, of the self, can be described in solely neurobiological terms. This essay describes a few ways in which neuroscientific research has changed the way philosophers think about the mind and also suggests some ways in which the methods and questions of philosophers might affect neuroscience.