A Scientific Connection Between The Mental And Physical Viewed Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 153-4):

In Modes of Thought, Whitehead pointed out that philosophy is the attempt to make manifest the fundamental evidence as to the nature of things. In the same work, he remarked that scientific reasoning is completely dominated by the presupposition that mental functionings are not properly part of nature. He deplored this and hoped that a proper connection between the mental and physical could be forged within science itself.

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From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory, science since Galileo has been concerned with the outer material-relational domain of meaning (Galileo's 'primary qualities'), whereas mental functionings are those of the inner mental-verbal domain of meaning (Galileo's 'secondary qualities').  Consistent with Galilean science, Edelman's Theory of Neuronal Group Selection provides a model of the inner domain in terms of the outer domain that makes the emergence of the inner domain possible.