When is this lecture given?

Welcome to physiology 100. I’m doctor Ann Roberts. I think everyone here is the sophomore since this is the nursing department’s second year physiology course. If you are first year nursing students, please see me after class about transfering 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, 1 see someone of you has! Well, vitalism and mechanism are two completely opposed approaches to human physiology. According to the vitalist, the laws of the physics and chemistry alone cannot explain the processes of life. To the vitalist, there is a so-called" vital force" and this "vital force" is totally separated from mental 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 experimentations. The modern scientist tends to be a mechanist, but vitalism is not totally dismissed especially in feel, such as brain physiology. There are terms, such as human consciousness, that haven’t been defined by physical and chemical terms. I recently read an interesting article that deals with the variant question that whether the mind is separated from the brain or whether the chemical is in the physiological working of the brain. I’d like to continue with this next time so we can speak more details. I have some copies of that article and I want you to take them home and read them for next week.