Disciplining Physiological Psychology: Cinematographs as Epistemic Devices in the Work of Henri Bergson and Charles Scott Sherrington

Abstract

Argument This paper arrives at a normative position regarding the relevance of Henri Bergson's philosophy to historical enquiry. It does so via experimental historical analysis of the adaptation of cinematographic devices to physiological investigation. Bergson's philosophy accorded well with a mode of physiological psychology in which claims relating to mental and physiological existence interacted. Notably however, cinematograph-centered experimentation by British physiologists including Charles Scott Sherrington, as well as German-trained psychologists such as Hugo Münsterberg and Max Wertheimer, contributed to a cordoning-off of psychological from physiological questioning during the early twentieth century. Bergson invested in a mode of intellectual practice in which psychological claims had direct relevance to the interpretation of physiological nature. The in-part cinematograph-inspired breakdown of this mode had significance for subsequent interpretations of his philosophy. It is suggested that this experimental particularization of Bergson's contentions indicates that any adaptation of his thought for historical enquiry must be disciplinarily specific.

Aproximaciones al desarrollo: diálogos de frontera entre las teorías socioculturales y Bergson

“…Bergson (1927Bergson ( , 1903Bergson ( /2011) compara el método cientíco con el intuitivo a través de la metáfora del cinematógrafo para cuestionar la tendencia de la ciencia hacia la medición. Para el autor, el cientíco se enfoca en el momento presente como si fuera una fotografía instantánea sin considerar las características esenciales y las totalidades inherentes a los organismos (Quick, 2017). Así, el cientíco no ve más que fases que se suceden otras fases, formas que reemplazan a otras formas; se contenta con una descripción cualitativa de los objetos, que asimila a los seres organizados.…”

The Hebb Synapse Before Hebb: Theories of Synaptic Function in Learning and Memory Before Hebb (1949), With a Discussion of the Long-Lost Synaptic Theory of William McDougall

“…202-204) discussed McDougall's theory of reciprocal inhibition by drainage through the release of neurin at synapses and reprinted (McDougall, 1903a, p. 175) figure describing this theory (Sherrington, 1906b, Figure 56, p. 202). Sherrington and McDougall had a long association, from the time that McDougall worked with Sherrington on muscle activity at St Thomas' Hospital between 1894 and 1898 to their teaching in the physiology program and UCL in 1902 and later on the committee on fatigue between . Quick (2017 discusses the relationship between Sherrington and McDougall.…”

“…Sherrington and McDougall had a long association, from the time that McDougall worked with Sherrington on muscle activity at St Thomas’ Hospital between 1894 and 1898 to their teaching in the physiology program and UCL in 1902 and later on the committee on fatigue between 1906 and 1911. Quick (2017 , pp. 440–444) discusses the relationship between Sherrington and McDougall.…”