“The Body as the Guiding Thread” : anticipations of Nietzschean Philosophy in Contemporary Neuroscience and the Study of Homeodynamics

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to answer one main question: Can Nietzsche be considered as a serious contributor to contemporary scientific inquiries regarding how it studies the body, consciousness, and human experience? Or in other words, the same question can be reformulated as such: can Nietzsche's thoughts on the body as "the guiding thread" (NL 36[35]) serve as precedence to, more specifically, contemporary theories in cognitive neuroscience of consciousness and affective neuroscience, and some strands of biology -specifically the study of homeostatic processes in relation to cultures, language and the body- that hold strong dynamic embodied views, championed by philosophically inclined scientists such as David Eagleman and Antonio Damasio. It is my understanding that Nietzsche’s speculative scientific thinking was insightfully correct in relation to the studies of the aforementioned scientists. Günter Abel’s model of continuum will serve as the framework and method to this investigation, which establishes that there is “a continuous spectrum of what exists or occurs, from the most extreme limit of the inorganic, through the organic, up to mental states, consciousness, self-consciousness, cognitive and other mental activities, and human action.” This is to eliminate any possible dualistic interpretations in Nietzsche’s texts, and to make sense when uniting Nietzsche’s insights to contemporary neuroscience and biology. To support my claim, I will first delve into Nietzsche's own scientific readings, especially the influence of evolutionary embryologist Wilhelm Roux had on him. This will set the stage for his future proclamation of the body as “the guiding thread” and will allow us a glimpse into his psychological backdrop when writing that one of his tasks is to “translate man back to nature” (BGE 230) . We will then explore scientific texts that create a continuum between Nietzsche’s conception of the body and all the considerations that spring out of this foundational view and how they it relates to some strands of contemporary neuroscience, and the study of biology, especially that of homeostasis, as shall be seen in Antonio Damasio’s The Strange Order of Things: Life, Meaning, and the Making of Culture, which centers his studies of life and cultural poesies around this process of homeostasis, which he links it closely to feelings (another very important concept in Nietzschean philosophy). Throughout this thesis we will see how fruitful, up to date and anticipatory his insights on body dynamics were when compared to contemporary studies.

Keywords: Nietzsche, Science, Continuum, Neuroscience, Homeodynamics, Livewiring, Plasticity, Consciousness, Self