Thomas Laycock and the cerebral reflex: a function arising from and pointing to the unity of Nature

Abstract

Thomas Laycock has been credited as being the first to apply the concept of reflex action to the brain, and to apply the theory of evolution of the development of the nervous centres in the animal kingdom to man. Even though Laycock was writing about these ideas fifteen years before The Origin of Species, the aim of this paper is not to rattle some historical collection-can about the plight of a passed-over scientist. Rather it is concerned with the development of Laycock's ideas on the reflex, with a strong emphasis on showing how these ideas grew out of his fundamental belief in the unity of nature, which he saw as working through an 'unconsciously acting principle of organization'. In so doing, I hope to demonstrate that his seemingly reductionist conclusions actually sprang from a philosophy of nature that rejected reductionism.