Article ID: CBB698793031

Analysis and/or Interpretation in Neurophysiology? A Transatlantic Discussion Between F. J. J. Buytendijk and K. S. Lashley, 1929–1932 (2022)

unapi

In the interwar period, biologists employed a diverse set of holistic approaches that were connected to different research methodologies. Against this background, this article explores attempts in the 1920s and 1930s to negotiate quantitative and qualitative methods in the field of neurophysiology. It focuses on the work of two scientists on different sides of the Atlantic: the Dutch animal psychologist and physiologist Frederik J.J. Buytendijk and the American neuropsychologist Karl S. Lashley, specifically analyzing their critical correspondence, 1929–1932, on the problems surrounding the term intelligence. It discusses the inexplicable anomalies in neurophysiology as well as the reliability of quantitative and qualitative methods. While in his laboratory work Lashley adhered to a strictly analytic approach, Buytendijk tried to combine quantitative methods with phenomenological and hermeneutical approaches. The starting point of their discussion is Lashley’s monograph on Brain Mechanisms and Intelligence (1929) and the rat experiments discussed therein. Buytendijk questioned the viability of the maze-learning method and the use of statistics to test intelligence in animals; he reproduced Lashley’s experiments and then confronted Lashley with his critical findings. In addition to elucidating this exchange, this paper will, more generally, shed light on the nature of the disagreements and shared assumptions prevalent among interwar neurophysiologists. In turn, it contributes to historiographical debates on localization and functionalism and the discrepancy between analytic (quantitative) and interpretative (qualitative) approaches.

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Article Jan Baedke; Christina Brandt (2022) Between the Wars, Facing a Scientific Crisis: The Theoretical and Methodological Bottleneck of Interwar Biology. Journal of the History of Biology (pp. 209-217). unapi

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB698793031/

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Authors & Contributors
Grell, Chantal
Miguel Menezes De Sequeira
Darwin Correspondence Project, Editors
S. Mesquita
Cristina Castel-Branco
Yale, Elizabeth E.
Concepts
Correspondence and corresponding
Communication within scientific contexts
Controversies and disputes
Scientific communities; interprofessional relations
Methodology of science; scientific method
Neurophysiology
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
17th century
20th century
Early modern
Renaissance
Places
Germany
Europe
United Kingdom
Madeira (Portugal)
Lisbon (Portugal)
Naples (Italy)
Institutions
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
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