This article extends a distinction between the data of sense and the data of consciousness discussed in a former article (Henman, 2013) as a context for a discussion of language usage in neuroscientific literature. Such usage attributes mental acts to biological processes.
In doing so, an unintentional neglect of the data of consciousness is perpetuated as well as a denial of the empirical nature of conscious acts or states. Such usage can also contribute to an inhibition of a more adequate understanding of biochemical processes.
Discussions of a) objectivity, b) knowing as a conscious activity and c) the biological process of evolution will provide further contexts towards a shift in methodology providing the possibility of a more adequate understanding of the relationship between the cerebral organ and consciousness.

 

Keywords:
reductionism, methodology, neuroscience, evolution theory, objectivity

 

Received on January 06, 2015
Accepted on March 26, 2015
Firstly published online on June 23, 2015