Metaphysics and the Mind-body Problem

Metaphysics and the Mind-body Problem
Author: Michael E. Levin
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 298
Release: 1979
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN:

Defends the ancient thesis that man is a piece of matter, that all his states are physical states, and all his properties physical properties. This is done in a metaphysical framework which accommodates talk of the identity and diversity of such 'virtual entites' as states and properties without being committed to their actual existence.

Structure and the Metaphysics of Mind

Structure and the Metaphysics of Mind
Author: William Jaworski
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2016
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0198749562

Structure and the Metaphysics of Mind is the first book to show how hylomorphism can be used to solve mind-body problems--persistent problems understanding how thought, feeling, perception, and other mental phenomena fit into the physical world described by our best science. Hylomorphism claims that structure is a basic ontological and explanatory principle. Some individuals, paradigmatically living things, consist of materials that are structured or organized in various ways. Those structures are responsible for individuals being the kinds of things they are, and having the kinds of powers or capacities they have. From a hylomorphic perspective, mind-body problems are byproducts of a worldview that rejects structure. Hylomorphic structure carves out distinctive individuals from the otherwise undifferentiated sea of matter and energy described by our best physics, and it confers on those individuals distinctive powers, including the powers to think, feel, and perceive. A worldview that rejects hylomorphic structure lacks a basic principle which distinguishes the parts of the physical universe that can think, feel, and perceive from those that can't, and without such a principle, the existence of those powers in the physical world can start to look inexplicable and mysterious. But if mental phenomena are structural phenomena, as hylomorphism claims, then they are uncontroversially part of the physical world, for on the hylomorphic view, structure is uncontroversially part of the physical world. Hylomorphism thus provides an elegant way of solving mind-body problems.

The Mind-Body Problem

The Mind-Body Problem
Author: Jonathan Westphal
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2016-09-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0262529564

An introduction to the mind–body problem, covering all the proposed solutions and offering a powerful new one. Philosophers from Descartes to Kripke have struggled with the glittering prize of modern and contemporary philosophy: the mind-body problem. The brain is physical. If the mind is physical, we cannot see how. If we cannot see how the mind is physical, we cannot see how it can interact with the body. And if the mind is not physical, it cannot interact with the body. Or so it seems. In this book the philosopher Jonathan Westphal examines the mind-body problem in detail, laying out the reasoning behind the solutions that have been offered in the past and presenting his own proposal. The sharp focus on the mind-body problem, a problem that is not about the self, or consciousness, or the soul, or anything other than the mind and the body, helps clarify both problem and solutions. Westphal outlines the history of the mind-body problem, beginning with Descartes. He describes mind-body dualism, which claims that the mind and the body are two different and separate things, nonphysical and physical, and he also examines physicalist theories of mind; antimaterialism, which proposes limits to physicalism and introduces the idea of qualia; and scientific theories of consciousness. Finally, Westphal examines the largely forgotten neutral monist theories of mind and body, held by Ernst Mach, William James, and Bertrand Russell, which attempt neither to extract mind from matter nor to dissolve matter into mind. Westphal proposes his own version of neutral monism. This version is unique among neutral monist theories in offering an account of mind-body interaction.

Another Mind-Body Problem

Another Mind-Body Problem
Author: John Harfouch
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2018-05-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1438469977

The mind-body problem in philosophy is typically understood as a discourse concerning the relation of mental states to physical states, and the experience of sensation. On this level it seems to transcend issues of race and racism, but Another Mind-Body Problem demonstrates that racial distinctions have been an integral part of the discourse since the Modern period in philosophy. Reading figures such as Descartes, Leibniz, and Kant in their historical contexts, John Harfouch uncovers discussions of mind and body that engaged closely with philosophical and scientific notions of race in metaphysics and the philosophy of mind, in particular in understanding how the mind unites with the body at birth and is then passed on through sexual reproduction. Kant argued that a person's exterior body and interior psyche are bound together, that non-White people lacked reason, and that this lack of reason was carried on through reproduction such that non-Whites were an example of a union of mind and body without full being. Charting the development of this phenomenon from sixteenth-century medical literature to modern-day race discourse, Harfouch argues for new understandings of Descartes's mind-body problem, Fanon's experience of being 'not-yet human,' and the place of racism in relation to one of philosophy's most enduring and canonical problems.

What Am I?

What Am I?
Author: Joseph Almog
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2005
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780195177190

Almog decodes Descartes' argument for distinguishing between the human mind and body while maintaining their essential integration in a human being. His reading not only steers away from popular interpretations of the philosopher, but also represents a scholar coming to grips directly with Descartes himself.

Mind in a Physical World

Mind in a Physical World
Author: Jaegwon Kim
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2000
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 9780262611534

This book, based on Jaegwon Kim's 1996 Townsend Lectures, presents the philosopher's current views on a variety of issues in the metaphysics of the mind--in particular, the mind-body problem, mental causation, and reductionism. This book, based on Jaegwon Kim's 1996 Townsend Lectures, presents the philosopher's current views on a variety of issues in the metaphysics of the mind--in particular, the mind-body problem, mental causation, and reductionism. Kim construes the mind-body problem as that of finding a place for the mind in a world that is fundamentally physical. Among other points, he redefines the roles of supervenience and emergence in the discussion of the mind-body problem. Arguing that various contemporary accounts of mental causation are inadequate, he offers his own partially reductionist solution on the basis of a novel model of reduction. Retaining the informal tone of the lecture format, the book is clear yet sophisticated.

Mind, Brain, Behavior

Mind, Brain, Behavior
Author: Martin Carrier
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2019-06-17
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3110883384

No detailed description available for "Mind, Brain, Behavior".

Physicalism Deconstructed

Physicalism Deconstructed
Author: Kevin Morris
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2019
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1108472168

Provides a philosophical and historical critique of contemporary conceptions of physicalism, especially non-reductive, levels-based approaches to physicalist metaphysics. Challenging assumptions about the mind-body problem, this accessible book will interest scholars working in metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of science.

History of the Mind-Body Problem

History of the Mind-Body Problem
Author: Tim Crane
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2012-10-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134547366

History of the Mind-Body Problem is a collection of new essays by leading contributors on the various concerns that have given rise to and informed the mind-body problem in philosophy. The essays in this stellar collection discuss famous philosophers such as Aristotle, Aquinas and Descartes and cover the subjects of the origins of the qualia and intentionality.

An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind

An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind
Author: E. Jonathan Lowe
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2000-01-20
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780521654289

A lucid and wide-ranging introduction to the philosophy of mind, suitable for readers with a basic grounding in philosophy.