The Mind As a Scientific Object Between Brain and Culture

by Erneling, Christina E.; Johnson, David M.

• ISBN13: 9780195139327
• ISBN10: 0195139321
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-01-13
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

What holds together the various fields that are supposed to consititute the general intellectual discipline that people now call cognitive science? In this book, Erneling and Johnson identify two problems with defining this discipline. First, some theorists identify the common subject matteras the mind, but scientists and philosophers have not been able to agree on any single, satisfactory answer to the question of what the mind is. Second, those who speculate about the general characteristics that belong to cognitive science tend to assume that all the particular fields falling underthe rubric--psychology, linguistics, biology, and son on--are of roughly equal value in their ability to shed light on the nature of mind. This book argues that all the cognitive science disciplines are not equally able to provide answers to ontological questions about the mind, but rather thatonly neurophysiology and cultural psychology are suited to answer these questions. However, since the cultural account of mind has long been ignored in favor of the neurophysiological account, Erneling and Johnson bring together contributions that focus especially on different versions of thecultural account of the mind.

Table of Contents

Contributors	xi
Introduction: Can Cognitive Science Locate and Provide a Correct Account of the Mind's Center? Progress Toward the Literal	3	(12)
David Martel Johnson
I Where Are We at Present, and How Did We Get There?
Introduction	15	(5)
Christina E. Emeling
The Relevance of the Philosophy of Psychology to a Science of Psychology	20	(15)
Rom Harre
Mind as a Scientific Object: A Historical-Philosophical Exploration	35	(44)
Thomas Hardy Leahey
The Emergence of Minds in Space and Time	79	(22)
Jagdish Hattiangadi
Is the Mind a Scientific Object of Study? Lessons from History	101	(25)
Otniel E. Dror
II Is the Study of Mind Continuous with the Rest of Science?
Introduction	121	(5)
David Martel Johnson
Psychology as Engineering	126	(18)
Thomas Hardy Leahey
Epistemic Dualism	144	(16)
Gunther S. Stent
Mind, Brain, and Culture	160	(5)
David R. Olson
Chalmers's Naturalistic Dualism: The Irrelevance of the Mind-Body Problem to the Scientific Study of Consciousness	165	(11)
Don Ross
Emergence and Efficacy	176	(21)
William Seager
III Eliminative Materialism: Sound or Mistaken?
Introduction	193	(4)
David Martel Johnson
A Particularly Compelling Refutation of Eliminative Materialism	197	(9)
William G. Lycan
Commonsense Refutations of Eliminativism	206	(5)
Ausonio Marras
What Does It Take to Be a True Believer? Against the Opulent Ideology of Eliminative Materialism	211	(14)
David Henderson
Terry Horgan
Connectionism and the Propositional Attitudes	225	(26)
Barbara Von Eckardt
IV Is ``Mind'' Just Another Name for the Brain and What the Brain Does?
Introduction	247	(4)
Christina E. Erneling
All in the Interest of Time: On the Problem of Speed and Cognition	251	(14)
Martin Ingvar
Can There Be a Cognitive Neuroscience of Central Cognitive Systems?	265	(18)
Vinod Goel
The Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory: A Framework for the Science of Mind	283	(10)
Itiel E. Dror
Robin D. Thomas
Gall's Legacy Revisited: Decomposition and Localization in Cognitive Neuroscience	293	(30)
Tadeusz Zawidzki
William Bechtel
V Does Evolution Provide a Key to the Scientific Study of Mind?
Introduction	319	(4)
Christina E. Erneling
The Detachment of Thought	323	(19)
Peter Gardenfors
The Mind as an Object of Scientific Study	342	(25)
Jagdish Hattiangadi
The Significance of Ape Language Research	367	(14)
Stuart G. Shanker
Talbot J. Taylor
I Object: Mind and Brain as Darwinian Things	381	(21)
Charles J. Lumsden
VI Is the Mind a Cultural Entity?
Introduction	399	(3)
David Martel Johnson
Ignace Meyerson and Cultural Psychology	402	(11)
Jerome Bruner
Strong Culturalism	413	(19)
David Bakhurst
The Text of the Mind	432	(25)
Jens Brockmeier
VII Rationality: Cultural or Natural?
Introduction	453	(4)
Christina E. Emeling
Beyond the Mind-Body Problem	457	(14)
Timothy van Gelder
Workshop Rationality, Dogmatism, and Models of the Mind	471	(16)
I.C. Jarvie
Is Cognitive Development Equivalent to Scientific Development?	487	(12)
Christina E. Emeling
Mind, Brain, and the Upper Paleolithic	499	(12)
David Martel Johnson
Afterword: Between Brain and Culture--The Diversity of Mind	511	(8)
Christina E. Emeling
Citation Index	519	(8)
Subject Index	527