Hans-Werner Bothe

Hans-Werner Bothe (born September 23, 1952 in Langelsheim ) is a German neurosurgeon and philosopher . He founded the research area of neurobionics .

Life

Bothe studied philosophy and medicine in Tübingen and Mainz from 1973 to 1981, graduated in philosophy with a Magister Artium in 1978 with the subject "Limits of cognitive ability as determinations of subjectivity and objectivity in the principles of JG Fichtes science teaching of 1794" , then worked for three years on Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research in Cologne and received his doctorate in 1983 from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz with a dissertation on the subject of "The therapy of artificial brain abscesses with glucocorticoids and antibiotics in cats with contributions to basic pathophysiological research" for Dr. med.

After training as a neurosurgeon at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz , he completed his habilitation with the thesis “The cerebral decompression edema. A clinical and experimental investigation ” at the Medical University in Hanover , where he also taught and worked with Madjid Samii . In 1993 he was appointed to a professorship for neurosurgery at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster (Westphalia).

In 1992, with the 1st International Workshop on Neurobionics in Goslar, he initiated the interdisciplinary research area of neurobionics, the aim of which is to replace failed functions of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) with microelectronic implants. To do this, he brought together an international consortium of scientists from the fields of mathematics, neuroinformatics, basic biological sciences, microsystems technology and medicine.

Neurobionics

In 1991, together with Daniel Goeudevert , Madjid Samii and other representatives from science, business and politics, he founded the Neurobionics Foundation in Hanover (entry in the register of associations of the Hanover District Court on January 8, 1992 under the association register number 6231) and headed it as managing director. In 1995 the association was renamed "International Neurobionics Foundation". In cooperation with colleagues from microelectronics and microsystem technology, he developed implants for the treatment of patients with damaged retinas (together with M. Bartha and S. Chlebek), microelectronic systems for the treatment of bladder incontinence (together with B. von Heyden) and paraplegia (together with J. Holsheimer). He also improved the safety and effectiveness of neurosurgical procedures for the implantation of stimulation systems in the brain and spinal cord for Parkinson's and dystonia patients and for those with chronic pain.

Personality changes that can be observed in patients after deep brain stimulation prompted him to deal with the problem of determinism and free will from a neuroscientific point of view and from the perspective of the philosophy of mind : He was able to do so with the help of scientific methodology and on the basis of neuromedical knowledge reason that from the knowledge of brain research neither a causal dependency nor a deterministic connection between phenomenal , mental states of the 1st person perspective and empirical, neurophysiological brain functions of the 3rd person perspective can be derived. With this he considers the essential premise of the metaethical discourse to be admissible from an empirical approach, which says that humans, as beings endowed with reason, are free to decide how they act. With this thesis he contradicts the beliefs of brain researchers like Wolf Singer and Gerhard Roth .

Bothe was elected chairman of the joint ethics committee of the Westphalia-Lippe Medical Association and the Westphalian Wilhelms-Universität in 2010 and, in 2011, deputy chairman of the Standing Conference of Management and chairman of the ethics committee of the state medical associations at the German Medical Association .

Fonts

As an author:

with Michael Engel: Evolution releases the human spirit. Neurobionics - a medical discipline in the making. Umschau, Frankfurt 1994, ISBN 3-524-69105-6 .
with Michael Engel: Neurobionics - Future Medicine with Microelectronic Implants. Hope for paraplegics, stroke patients, Parkinson's patients, the visually and hearing impaired, those with epilepsy, and those with chronic pain. Umschau, Frankfurt 1998, ISBN 3-524-69118-8 .

As editor:

with Madjid Samii and Rolf Eckmiller : Neurobionics - an interdisciplinary approach to substitute impaired functions of the human nervous system. Elsevier, Amsterdam 1993, ISBN 0-444-89958-8 .
with Ingrid Gralow, Ingo W. Husstedt, Stefan Evers, Albert Hürter, Markus Schilgen: Interdisciplinary pain therapy. Schattauer, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-7945-2118-8 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Bothe, Hans-Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German medic and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH	September 23, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH	Langelsheim near Goslar, Germany