About
Philon. The Philon Group is still in a pre-incorporation stage. Its focus is on making explicit the medical applications of the conceptual framework that was developed by its founder, Daniel Alroy.
The conceptual framework in a nutshell. The conceptual framework identifies locus-specific brain cells that determine, and can evoke, the qualitative aspect of a given unitary mental state, and provides methods for the identification of these cells on a molecular level. It consists of tenets T1-2, implications I1-3, and consequences C1-4.
T1
Sensations are evoked in the brain, not imported into it. Red color, sweet taste, and the middle C pitch do not contain smaller constituents – they exemplify unitary mental states. The qualitative aspect of each is determined by the intrinsic function of locus-specific cells in the corresponding submodality-specific cortical area. More generally, any given unitary mental state is determined by the intrinsic function of locus-specific brain cells.
T2 The intrinsic function of any cell is determined by its molecular constitution. That constitution is reflected by the constitutively-expressed proteins of terminally-differentiated, non-dysfunctional cells. Neurons are cells: hence, their intrinsic function is determined by their molecular constitution.
I1 The intrinsic function of locus-specific cells that determine a given unitary mental state is, in turn, determined by their protein specificity.
I2
Any given unitary mental state is evoked by the locus-specific cells that determine its qualitative aspect.
I3 Inactivation identifies locus-specific brain cells that evoke the qualitative aspect of a given unitary mental state, such as a submodality element of sensation, if it selectively eliminates the response to the characteristic stimulus, without eliminating responses to stimuli characteristic of other elements within the same submodality.
C1
Some consequences. The application of the conceptual framework to extant data has made it possible to identify some locus-specific brain cells that evoke the qualitative aspect of a unitary mental state.
C2
In combination with presently available techniques of molecular neurobiology, the conceptual framework makes it possible, by those skilled in those techniques, to identify the protein specificity of locus-specific brain cells that ev0ke a given unitary mental state.
C3
The identification of the protein specificity of locus-specific brain cells that evoke a given unitary mental state in humans makes it possible, in turn, to identify its homologue in other species.
C4
The identification in other species, homologues of brain cells that evoke in humans a given unitary mental state, makes it possible to identify the evolutionary stage at which such mental state emerged.
To our knowledge, the present conceptual framework is the first to explicitly formulate the above tenets and implications, and it is the first to provide methods for the realization of the above consequences.