Eric Kandel’s intellectual framework for psychiatry and non-reductive materialism

Abstract

In this article I analyze Eric Kandel’s intellectual frameworks for psychiatry from the perspective of non-reductionist materialism. I briefly present Kandel’s program and its main features and then, after introducing various types of non-reductionist materialism, I focus on incorporation the philosophical view into a purely scientific program. The main goal of this paper is to show that a philosophical component is necessary for holistic approaches to the philosophy of mind.