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Philosophy of Mind and Cognition
The philosophy of mind and cognition has been transformed by recent advances in what is loosely called cognitive science. This book is a thoroughly up-to-date introduction to and account of that transformation, in which the many strands in contemporary cognitive science are brought together into a coherent philosophical picture of the mind.
The book begins with discussions of the pre-history of contemporary philosophy of mind - dualism, behaviourism, and early versions of the identity theory of mind - and moves through discussions of functionalism in autonomy of psychology, to topics such as eliminative materialism, individualism and the problems of content and representation.
The synoptic nature of the discussion makes it ideal as the foundation of an undergraduate course in the philosophy of mind.
The book begins with discussions of the pre-history of contemporary philosophy of mind - dualism, behaviourism, and early versions of the identity theory of mind - and moves through discussions of functionalism in autonomy of psychology, to topics such as eliminative materialism, individualism and the problems of content and representation.
The synoptic nature of the discussion makes it ideal as the foundation of an undergraduate course in the philosophy of mind.
- GenresPhilosophyNonfiction
293 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 24, 2016
This book is a good synoptic introduction to what is currently known as “cognitive sciences” (traditionally coming under the general umbrella of “philosophy of mind”), written by two professors of philosophy (at the University of Auckland and at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Australian National University).
The level is introductory, at undergraduate level. The overall approach and structure is quite typical of a University textbook – it is clearly an expansion of a series of lecture notes related to a University course that I found here: http://stevewatson.info/courses/Mind/....
It is a nice feature of this book that new concepts are clearly explained as soon as introduced. There is even a handy glossary at the end of the book, something that is unfortunately not so common in philosophy books, where too frequently confusion of terminology is rife.
The writing style is predominantly precise from a technical perspective, and usually unambiguous; the narrative is often supported by concrete examples to help with the understanding of potentially complex concepts, but the writing can be occasionally a bit dry and, at times, un-necessarily convoluted and obscure.
Historical references are sparse, as the book is mainly focused on providing a synoptic introduction to the current state of play of contemporary philosophy of mind and cognition (at the time of printing, 1999); this is an objective that the authors generally achieve reasonably well, even if the coverage of the different perspectives is occasionally uneven and it reflects the strong preference of the authors towards functionalist theories of mind.
The authors are very intellectually honest, though, in clearly declaring their explicit preferences at the very beginning of the book, and in highlighting the many objections that have been raised against the various forms of their pet theory, functionalism (for example, well-known challenges to functionalism such as the "China Brain", the ultra-famous "Chinese Room", and the "Blockhead" Gedankenexperiments, are treated very well); moreover, the strengths of alternative approaches are clearly stressed, and no approach is discounted prima facie, including the more extreme versions of eliminative materialism. The reader gets the clear impression that, notwithstanding the authors' leanings, the book is balanced in exploring a wide range of positions with intellectual fairness.
Many subjects are treated at a good level of details for such an introductory work, and arguments are generally quite well developed, providing a good coverage of contemporary trends in this discipline (in particular, chapter 10 is beautifully written: it deals with my favourite theories of intentional states: the "language of thought" hypothesis and the “map theory” of mind); however there are a few items that the authors touch only too briefly (such as the hard problem of consciousness and associated phenomenal qualities – also known as the famous "qualia"); moreover, the references to the (admittedly still at a quite unsatisfactory stage) advances and new perspectives in neurosciences, and also in computational theories of mind, are quite tenuous (just as an example, artificial neural networks are not even mentioned).
Overall, there is little engagement with empirical sciences, which are essentially relegated to the backstage by the authors' preference towards a functionalist approach, and their contention that such approach is very robust against any potential future outcome from empirical sciences – a position that I find quite artificial and somewhat difficult to completely agree with, and that ultimately reflects, in my opinion, the unfortunate compartmentalization of human knowledge at this level of specialization.
Apart from these issues, this book is a robust, good-quality and very informative introduction (at under-graduate level), to contemporary philosophical trends in philosophy of mind and cognition, providing a good panorama of current themes and a good foundation to readers interested in further pursuing this complex and fascinating subject. Good for future reference too (the bibliography is brief and not comprehensive, but quite helpful).
3.5 stars (rounded up to 4)
The level is introductory, at undergraduate level. The overall approach and structure is quite typical of a University textbook – it is clearly an expansion of a series of lecture notes related to a University course that I found here: http://stevewatson.info/courses/Mind/....
It is a nice feature of this book that new concepts are clearly explained as soon as introduced. There is even a handy glossary at the end of the book, something that is unfortunately not so common in philosophy books, where too frequently confusion of terminology is rife.
The writing style is predominantly precise from a technical perspective, and usually unambiguous; the narrative is often supported by concrete examples to help with the understanding of potentially complex concepts, but the writing can be occasionally a bit dry and, at times, un-necessarily convoluted and obscure.
Historical references are sparse, as the book is mainly focused on providing a synoptic introduction to the current state of play of contemporary philosophy of mind and cognition (at the time of printing, 1999); this is an objective that the authors generally achieve reasonably well, even if the coverage of the different perspectives is occasionally uneven and it reflects the strong preference of the authors towards functionalist theories of mind.
The authors are very intellectually honest, though, in clearly declaring their explicit preferences at the very beginning of the book, and in highlighting the many objections that have been raised against the various forms of their pet theory, functionalism (for example, well-known challenges to functionalism such as the "China Brain", the ultra-famous "Chinese Room", and the "Blockhead" Gedankenexperiments, are treated very well); moreover, the strengths of alternative approaches are clearly stressed, and no approach is discounted prima facie, including the more extreme versions of eliminative materialism. The reader gets the clear impression that, notwithstanding the authors' leanings, the book is balanced in exploring a wide range of positions with intellectual fairness.
Many subjects are treated at a good level of details for such an introductory work, and arguments are generally quite well developed, providing a good coverage of contemporary trends in this discipline (in particular, chapter 10 is beautifully written: it deals with my favourite theories of intentional states: the "language of thought" hypothesis and the “map theory” of mind); however there are a few items that the authors touch only too briefly (such as the hard problem of consciousness and associated phenomenal qualities – also known as the famous "qualia"); moreover, the references to the (admittedly still at a quite unsatisfactory stage) advances and new perspectives in neurosciences, and also in computational theories of mind, are quite tenuous (just as an example, artificial neural networks are not even mentioned).
Overall, there is little engagement with empirical sciences, which are essentially relegated to the backstage by the authors' preference towards a functionalist approach, and their contention that such approach is very robust against any potential future outcome from empirical sciences – a position that I find quite artificial and somewhat difficult to completely agree with, and that ultimately reflects, in my opinion, the unfortunate compartmentalization of human knowledge at this level of specialization.
Apart from these issues, this book is a robust, good-quality and very informative introduction (at under-graduate level), to contemporary philosophical trends in philosophy of mind and cognition, providing a good panorama of current themes and a good foundation to readers interested in further pursuing this complex and fascinating subject. Good for future reference too (the bibliography is brief and not comprehensive, but quite helpful).
3.5 stars (rounded up to 4)
December 4, 2021
This is a good introduction to the philosophy of mind for someone with already some general knowledge of philosophy or at least an acquaintance with some work on the analytical branch of philosophy. The first chapters start with a dualistic account of consciousness to quickly go on to behaviouralism and functionalism. A good fraction of the book is spent on the different functionalist views, in those chapter the reader will learn about possible worlds, identity theory and a bit (but just enough) about philosophy of language. Later chapters focus on intensionality, mental content, eliminativism and connections.
At the end of each chapter there are good references to papers and books with different viewpoints to the ones presented or to works that deepen on some topic. You will get to know as well about the many thought experiments which philosophers of mind have thought of together with arguments in favor and against them.
At the end of each chapter there are good references to papers and books with different viewpoints to the ones presented or to works that deepen on some topic. You will get to know as well about the many thought experiments which philosophers of mind have thought of together with arguments in favor and against them.
September 11, 2015
It is a good book, but it is not unbiased. Most books on philosophy of mind are written from a point of view of 20th century philosophical materialism. This is not an exception. If a person agrees with this philosophical viewpoint, it is an excellent addition to the bookshelf. If one wants a less biased book, it is not ideal.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews