PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS ON RECENT NEUROBIOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES

Abstract. Recent progress in neurophysiology research has created a certain uneasiness in the modes of explanation. Starting with body experiences this research has progressed to borderline experiences and confronts us anew with the age-old mind-body problem. At this point science is especially exposed to the dangers of reductionism as they have been spelled out by Carl Jung. Evolution, understood not as the deployment of pre-existing properties of matter but as the continued emergence of new realities which integrate and transform the pre-existing realities, may lead to a more profound understanding of humanity, which came into being through the emergence of mind. Archetypes and the human religious dimension or the capability to experience God may be the most significant mark of this emergence.