Scientific Communication Assignment

PROJECT AND METHODOLOGY I

SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION

MAY 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT … 1

PROBLEM AREA … 2

PROBLEM FORMULATION … 3

METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS … 3

Research strategy … 3

Research design … 5

Research methods … 6

Research field … 7

METHODOLOGICAL CONCLUSION … 8

EVALUATION … 8

LITERATURE … 10

REFERENCES … 10

ABSTRACT

In his dialogue Phaedrus, written within the 4th century BC, the Greek philosopher Plato makes a beautiful allegory comparing the human self with a driver holding the reins of two winged horses, one noble and white and the other ignoble and black. The driver is a representation of the calm and reasonable part of the mind, the chariot is the soul, the white horse represents the virtues while the black horse signifies the animal appetites and desires. In order to reach his destination – the banquet, the driver must equally control both horses, paying special attention to the black one and not allowing it to take over.

About one and a half millennium later, Rene Descartes produced perhaps one of the most famous statements in the history of philosophy: “Cogito ergo sum” – I think therefore I am, suggesting that the ability to think and the awareness of this process are the real foundation of being; in his view, the mind’s activity was separated from a body only perceived as a mechanical structure supporting the intellect.

In 1994 the neuroscientist Antonio Damasio published his book Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain in which, based on his neurological research experience, he contradicts Descartes’ opinion arguing that one of the French philosopher’s errors was of not seeing that nature seems to have created rationality not on top of the biological regulations but also from them and with them.

It seems to be an eternal mismatch. Does our mind function rationally or the decisions we make every day, whether in domestic issues or at work,...