Philosophy of Mind and Cognition An Introduction

by Braddon-Mitchell, David; Jackson, Frank

• ISBN13: 9781405133241
• ISBN10: 1405133244
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-11-17
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

David Braddon-Mitchell and Frank Jackson's popular introduction to philosophy of mind and cognition is now available in a fully revised and updated edition. Ensures that the most recent developments in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science are brought together into a coherent, accessible whole. Revisions respond to feedback from students and teachers and make the volume even more useful for courses. New material includes: a section on Descartes' famous objection to materialism; extended treatment of connectionism; coverage of the view that psychology is autonomous; fuller discussion of recent debates over phenomenal experience; and much more.

Author Biography

David Braddon-Mitchell is Reader in Philosophy at the University of Sydney. He has published widely in philosophy of mind and metaphysics.

Frank Jackson is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University. He is the author of Conditionals (Blackwell, 1987) and his John Locke Lectures were published as From Metaphysics to Ethics in 1998.

Table of Contents

Preface	x
Part I: From Dualism to Common-sense Functionalism	1	(64)
1 The Flight from Dualism	3	(34)
The Issue Between Dualism and Materialism	3	(18)
Some of the classic arguments for dualism	4	(6)
Two kinds of dualism	10	(2)
The causal problem for dualism	12	(3)
Some responses for the dualist	15	(4)
Refining the definition of materialism	19	(2)
Supervenience	21	(2)
Supervenience and completeness	21	(2)
Supervenience and possible worlds	23	(1)
Possible Worlds: An Introduction	23	(12)
Explications in terms of possible worlds	24	(4)
Supervenience and possible worlds	28	(1)
Materialism and supervenience	28	(2)
Making true and the varieties of materialism	30	(1)
Some warnings and physical properties revisited	31	(4)
Annotated Reading	35	(2)
2 Behaviourism and Beyond	37	(11)
The Case for Behaviourism	38	(2)
Methodological and Revisionary Behaviourism	40	(1)
Problems for Behaviourism	41	(4)
The Path to Functionalism via a Causal Theory	45	(1)
The Causal Theory of Mind	46	(1)
Annotated Reading	47	(1)
3 Common-sense Functionalism	48	(17)
Multiple Realizability	49	(3)
Common-sense Functionalism Expounded	52	(3)
Interconnections without Circularity	55	(4)
Behaviour Characterized in Terms of Environmental Impact	59	(2)
What Does Common Sense Say about the Mind?	61	(3)
Annotated Reading	64	(1)
Part II: Rivals and Objections	65	(104)
4 Theory of Reference	67	(17)
The Description Theory of Reference	67	(5)
Objections to the description theory	69	(3)
The Causal Theory	72	(7)
Rigid designation	75	(4)
The Necessary A Posteriori	79	(4)
Annotated Reading	83	(1)
5 Empirical Functionalisms	84	(11)
Common-sense Functional Roles as a Reference-fixing Device	84	(3)
Chauvinism and Empirical Functionalism	87	(7)
Annotated Reading	94	(1)
6 The Identity Theory	95	(12)
The Identity Theory and Functionalism	97	(1)
Some Early Objections to the Identity Theory	98	(2)
Token–Token versus Type–Type Identity Theories	100	(4)
Essentialism about Psychological States	104	(2)
Annotated Reading	106	(1)
7 Four Challenges to Functionalism	107	(22)
The China Brain	107	(3)
The Chinese Room	110	(4)
Blockhead	114	(1)
Good chess versus being good at chess	115	(1)
The game of life	116	(3)
Why Blockhead is not a thinker	119	(3)
Common-sense functionalism and Blockhead	122	(1)
The Zombie Objection	123	(5)
Annotated Reading	128	(1)
8 Phenomenal Qualities and Consciousness	129	(25)
The Question of Qualia	130	(12)
The spectrum inversion objection to functionalism	131	(3)
The knowledge argument challenge to physicalism	134	(1)
Replies to the knowledge argument	135	(7)
Consciousness	142	(7)
Representationalism and Perceptual Experience	149	(3)
Annotated Reading	152	(2)
9 Instrumentalism and Interpretationism	154	(15)
Instrumentalism	154	(10)
Stances and intentional systems	155	(4)
Instrumentalism and intentional systems theory	159	(5)
Interpretationism	164	(3)
Annotated Reading	167	(2)
Part III: About Content	169	(94)
10 The Language of Thought	171	(14)
The Language of Thought Hypothesis	173	(4)
Why are we supposed to believe in the language of thought?	175	(2)
The Map Alternative	177	(7)
The way maps represent	179	(2)
Do maps explain the phenomena?	181	(3)
Annotated Reading	184	(1)
11 Content	185	(34)
What is the Problem of Content?	185	(3)
The Map Theory	188	(5)
Belief as a map by which we steer	188	(5)
The Internal Sentence Theory	193	(2)
Problems for the Map-system Theory	195	(8)
Problems and Questions for the Internal Sentence Theory	203	(14)
Informational semantics	204	(6)
Content, evolution and biological function	210	(5)
A general objection to the internal sentence theory of the content of belief	215	(2)
Annotated Reading	217	(2)
12 Connectionism	219	(18)
Connectionism and the Map-system Theory	230	(6)
Annotated Reading	236	(1)
13 Broad and Narrow Content	237	(26)
Narrow Content	238	(8)
Virtual reality and brains in vats	238	(2)
Narrow content is not intrinsic	240	(2)
Egocentric content	242	(3)
The explanatory value of narrow content	245	(1)
Broad Content	246	(8)
The explanatory value of broad content	251	(3)
Deflationism about Broad Content versus Scepticism about Narrow Content	254	(7)
Annotated Reading	261	(2)
Part IV: Explaining Behaviour: Eliminativism and Realism	263	(29)
14 Eliminative Materialism	265	(15)
The Case for Eliminativism	265	(3)
The Functionalist Reply to Eliminativism	268	(7)
Does functionalism make it too easy to save folk psychology?	272	(2)
Empirical functionalism: how to have strong internal constraints without inviting scepticism	274	(1)
Natural Kinds and Scientific Reductions	275	(4)
Annotated Reading	279	(1)
15 Psychological Explanation and Common-sense Functionalism	280	(12)
Three Questions for Common-sense Functionalism	281	(10)
The triviality question	282	(2)
The relationship question: partial and complete explanations	284	(5)
The causal question	289	(2)
Annotated Reading	291	(1)
Glossary	292	(18)
Bibliography	310	(6)
Index	316