The Brain Abstracted

Winner of the Nayef Al-Rodhan Book Prize from The Royal Institute of Philosophy
Winner of the 2025 Lakatos Award from the London School of Economics and Political Science

An exciting, new framework for interpreting the philosophical significance of neuroscience.

All science needs to simplify, but when the object of research is something as complicated as the brain, this challenge can stretch the limits of scientific possibility. In fact, in The Brain Abstracted, an avowedly “opinionated” history of neuroscience, M. Chirimuuta argues that, due to the brain’s complexity, neuroscientific theories have only captured partial truths—and “neurophilosophy” is unlikely to be achieved. Looking at the theory and practice of neuroscience, both past and present, Chirimuuta shows how the science has been shaped by the problem of brain complexity and the need, in science, to make things as simple as possible. From this history, Chirimuuta draws lessons for debates in philosophy of science over the limits and definition of science and in philosophy of mind over explanations of consciousness and the mind-body problem.

The Brain Abstracted is the product of a historical rupture that has become visible in the twenty-first century, between the “classical” scientific approach, which seeks simple, intelligible principles underlying the manifest complexity of nature, and a data-driven engineering approach, which dispenses with the search for elegant, explanatory laws and models. In the space created by this rupture, Chirimuuta finds grounds for theoretical and practical humility. Her aim in The Brain Abstracted is not to reform neuroscience, or offer advice to neuroscientists, but rather to interpret their work—and to suggest a new framework for interpreting the philosophical significance of neuroscience.Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi

Part I 1
1 Introduction 3
2 Footholds 35

Part II 63
3 The Reflex Theory: Misleading Simplicity in Early Neuroscience 65
4 Your Brain Is Like a Computer 91
5 Ideal Patterns and “Simple” Cells 119
6 Why “Neural Repre sen ta tions”? 149
7 The Heraclitean Brain 183

Part III 207
8 Prediction, Comprehension, and the Limits of Science 209
9 Revisiting the Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness 245
10 Cartesian Idealization 277
References 309
Index 355“Mazviita Chirimuuta’s The Brain Abstracted is a landmark work in the philosophy of neuroscience . . . It gives a fresh take on long-running debates about neural representation, computation, and functionalism, while also advancing the state of play within general philosophy of science. In short, it is an impressive book that is sure to shape discussion in the field for years to come.”
—BJPS Review of Books“Chirimuuta’s thoughtful treatment is a salutary reminder that substantive philosophical conclusions can rarely be read off from scientific theories. More challengingly, The Brain Abstracted mounts an unusually scientifically well-informed argument for the autonomy of philosophical inquiries about the mind from the findings of neuroscience.”
—Nicholas Shea, Professor, Institute of Philosophy, University of London
 
“Chirimuuta provides a fiercely intelligent and indeed thrilling take down of many of the sins of simplification that dominate current neuroscience. This book is an effortlessly original standout, and it could not be timelier.”
—John W. Krakauer, John C. Malone Professor, Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; External Professor, The Santa Fe InstituteOriginally trained in visual neuroscience, M. Chirimuuta writes on the central ideas of the mind/brain sciences. She is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and the author of Outside Color (MIT Press).