Giving a Damn Essays in Dialogue with John Haugeland

by Adams, Zed; Browning, Jacob

• ISBN13: 9780262035248
• ISBN10: 0262035243
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2016-12-16
• Publisher: The MIT Press

Summary

A collection of essays that use John Haugeland's work on intentionality, embodiment, objectivity, and caring to explore contemporary issues in philosophy of mind.

In his work, the philosopher John Haugeland (1945–2010) proposed a radical expansion of philosophy's conceptual toolkit, calling for a wider range of resources for understanding the mind, the world, and how they relate. Haugeland argued that “giving a damn” is essential for having a mind—suggesting that traditional approaches to cognitive science mistakenly overlook the relevance of caring to the understanding of mindedness. Haugeland's determination to expand philosophy's array of concepts led him to write on a wide variety of subjects that may seem unrelated—from topics in cognitive science and philosophy of mind to examinations of such figures as Martin Heidegger and Thomas Kuhn. Haugeland's two books with the MIT Press, Artificial Intelligence and Mind Design, show the range of his interests.

This book offers a collection of essays in conversation with Haugeland's work. The essays, by prominent scholars, extend Haugeland's work on a range of contemporary topics in philosophy of mind—from questions about intentionality to issues concerning objectivity and truth to the work of Heidegger. Giving a Damn also includes a previously unpublished paper by Haugeland, “Two Dogmas of Rationalism,” as well as critical responses to it. Finally, an appendix offers Haugeland's outline of Kant's "Transcendental Deduction of the Categories.”

Contributors
Zed Adams, William Blattner, Jacob Browning, Steven Crowell, John Haugeland, Bennett W. Helm, Rebecca Kukla, John Kulvicki, Mark Lance, Danielle Macbeth, Chauncey Maher, John McDowell, Joseph Rouse

Author Biography

Zed Adams is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research.

Jacob Browning is a PhD student at the New School for Social Research.

Zed Adams is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research.

The late John Haugeland was the David B. and Clara E. Stern Professor Emeritus in Philosophy at the University of Chicago. He was chair of the Philosophy Department from 2004–07 and the editor of two editions of Mind Design: Essays in Philosophy, Psychology, and Artificial Intelligence.

The late John Haugeland was the David B. and Clara E. Stern Professor Emeritus in Philosophy at the University of Chicago. He was chair of the Philosophy Department from 2004–07 and the editor of two editions of Mind Design: Essays in Philosophy, Psychology, and Artificial Intelligence.