What’s the subject?

Welcome to physiology 100. I’m Dr. Ann Roberts. I assume everyone here is the sophomore since this is the Nursing Department Second Year Physiology Course. If you are first year nursing students, please see me after class about transferring to the introductory course. OK, I’d like to begin my first lecture by introducing two important terms: Vitalism versus Mechanism. How many of you’ve heard these terms? Oh, I see someone of you have! Well, vitalism and mechanism are two completely opposite approaches to human physiology. According to the vitalist, the laws of the physics and the chemistry alone cannot explain the processes of the life. To the vitalist, there is a so called "vital force" and this "vital force" is totally separated from matter of energy. As you may have guessed, vitalism is a kind of philosophical approach. Mechanism, on the other hand, is the view that all life phenomena, no matter how complex, can be explained according to chemical and physical laws, since we can support mechanism through scientific experimentation. The modern scientist tends to be a mechanist, but vitalism is not totally dismissed especially in field, such as brain physiology where terms such as human consciousness, haven’t been defined in physical and the chemical terms. I recently read an interesting article that deals with the very question. Is the mind separated from the brain or is the mind only the chemical and physiological working of the brain? I’d like to continue with this next time so that we can speak more details. I have some copies of that article and I want to take it with you and read it for next week