Karl R. Popper, geboren am 28. Juli 1902 in Wien, gestorben am 17. September 1994 bei London. Er emigrierte 1937 nach Neuseeland, wo er am University College in Christchurch lehrte. Von 1946 bis 1969 war er Professor an der London School of Economics. 1965 wurde er von Königin Elizabeth II. geadelt. Zahlreiche Veröffentlichungen.John C. Eccles, geb. 1903 in Melbourne, gest. 1997 in Locarno. Medizinstudium in Melbourne. Lehrtätigkeit in Oxford, dann Institutsdirektor in Sidney. Professuren in Otago/Neuseeland, Canberra/Australien und Buffalo/USA. 1963 Nobelpreis für gehirnphysiologische Forschungen. Zahlreiche Veröffentlichungen.

I by Karl R. Popper.- P1 Materialism Transcends Itself.- P2 The Worlds 1, 2 and 3.- P3 Materialism Criticized.- P4 Some Remarks on the Self.- P5 Historical Comments on the Mind-Body Problem.- P6 Summary.- II by John C. Eccles.- E1 The Cerebral Cortex.- E2 Conscious Perception.- E3 Voluntary Movement.- E4 The Language Centres of the Human Brain.- E5 Global Lesions of the Human Cerebrum.- E6 Circumscribed Cerebral Lesions.- E7 The Self-Conscious Mind and the Brain.- E8 Conscious Memory: The Cerebral Processes Concerned in Storage and Retrieval.- III Dialogues Between the Two Authors.- Dialogue I.- Dialogue II.- Dialogue III.- Dialogue IV.- Dialogue V.- Dialogue VI.- Dialogue VII.- Dialogue VIII.- Dialogue IX.- Dialogue X.- Dialogue XI.- Dialogue XII.- Bibliography to Part III.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjects.

The problem of the relation between our bodies and our minds, and espe cially of the link between brain structures and processes on the one hand and mental dispositions and events on the other is an exceedingly difficult one. Without pretending to be able to foresee future developments, both authors of this book think it improbable that the problem will ever be solved, in the sense that we shall really understand this relation. We think that no more can be expected than to make a little progress here or there. We have written this book in the hope that we have been able to do so. We are conscious of the fact that what we have done is very conjectur al and very modest. We are aware of our fallibility; yet we believe in the intrinsic value of every human effort to deepen our understanding of our selves and of the world we live in. We believe in humanism: in human rationality, in human science, and in other human achievements, however fallible they are. We are unimpressed by the recurrent intellectual fashions that belittle science and the other great human achievements. An additional motive for writing this book is that we both feel that the debunking of man has gone far enough - even too far. It is said that we had to learn from Copernicus and Darwin that man's place in the universe is not so exalted or so exclusive as man once thought. That may well be.