ON BRAIN and MIND

We discuss some consequences on the brain-mind dichotomy of the requirement that both facts and procedures must be repeatable without any restriction on principle or method, in studying human behavior. The most relevant consequences of this requirement are examined and the methodological possibilities are discussed that arise when we are devising a theory. Two extreme situations are considered: the theories where a chain of physical processes explains the experimental results; and the theories where alI the intermediate elements in the explanation chain are mental categories. Brain, mind, and the organ/ function relationship are examined in this framework, and very simple characterizations are proposed. Few relevant consequences are then outlined of relaxing the complete repeatability requirement.