Was Sömmerring criticized for his views on the 'organ of the soul'?
Some contemporaries found my assertion that the brain and nerves were the 'organ of the soul' to be overly materialistic, perhaps even challenging to more traditional philosophical or theological understandings of the mind. My critics often preferred to maintain a greater separation between the physical body and the immaterial spirit. However, I saw no contradiction; rather, I believed that the profound complexity of these physical structures offered the most plausible explanation for the phenomena we associate with the soul and consciousness.
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