Abstract

The discovery of mirror neurons in both primates and humans has led to an enormous amount of research and speculation as to how conscious beings are able to interact so effortlessly among one another. Mirror neurons might provide an embodied basis for passive synthesis and the eventual process of further communalization through empathy, as envisioned by Edmund Husserl. I consider the possibility of a phenomenological and scientific investigation of laughter as a point of connection that might in the future bridge the gap Husserl feared had grown too expansive between the worlds of science and philosophy. Part I will describe some implications of the discovery of mirror neurons. Part II will address Husserl’s concept of embodiment as it relates to neuroscience and empathy. Part III will be a primer to investigating laughter phenomenologically. Part IV will be a continuation of the study of laughter and empathy as possible elements helpful in broadening the scope of what Husserl calls the Life-World.

Highlights

  • My proposal is that this link is constituted by the embodiment of the intended goal, shared by the agent and the observer. (“Shared Manifold Hypothesis” 36, emphasis in original) This is fascinating because the implications extend beyond a purely empirical investigation into the possible correlation between brain states and behaviour

  • There is a basis for further and expanded synthesis that would not otherwise be possible without the grounding in mirror neurons discovered by neuroscientists and passive synthesis described by Husserl, which in the first place allows for practical activity and meaningful situations

  • There is an unsettling of the self as I allow my home-world to expand, enabling me to imagine myself in the space of the other; but these movements are not pure “phantasies or modes of the ‘as if’” nor “merely a moment of my own essence,” but rather a co-presenting or reciprocal appresenting of each other (Cartesian Meditations 108; 109). This coupling might be facilitated by the mirror neuron system which is activated, as noted above, by the passive recognition of goal-directed behaviour of other sentient beings in such a way that two lived bodies are intersubjectively connected, which leads to further empathic co-experiencing

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Summary

Introduction

This coupling might be facilitated by the mirror neuron system which is activated, as noted above, by the passive recognition of goal-directed behaviour of other sentient beings in such a way that two lived bodies are intersubjectively connected, which leads to further empathic co-experiencing.

Results
Conclusion

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