ABSTRACT
Philosophy (actually, metaphysics), declared Immanuel Kant, is “the Queen of the Sciences.” And, indeed, for many centuries philosophy was the mother of virtually all disciplines. There was little distinction between philosophy and psychology, and even the “hard” sciences of physics and chemistry were part of “natural philosophy.” René Descartes wrote authoritatively about the neuroscience of his time, and John Locke was one among many philosophers who explored the anatomy and physiology of the sense organs. The idea of “bridge building” back then would have been all but unintelligible. There were no islands, no disciplines, and there was little “specialization” where the study of human nature was concerned.
