Neuroscience, Neurophilosophy and Pragmatism Brains at Work with the World

by Solymosi, Tibor; Shook, John R.

• ISBN13: 9781137376060
• ISBN10: 1137376066
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-11-21
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Recent work in the neurosciences and neurophilosophy has found resources in the philosophical tradition of pragmatism. This volume is the first to bring together active neuroscientists, neurophilosophers, and scholars to consider the prospects of a neuroscientifically-informed pragmatism and a pragmatically-informed neuroscience on issues ranging from the nature of mental life to the implications of neuroscience for education and ethics. For the past 20 years, many people, from journalists to presidents, have advocated the importance of studying the brain for understanding a host of medical phenomena and disabilities. This enthusiasm has only recently been met with skepticism. This collection, however, takes a critical yet constructive attitude toward the import of the neurosciences. The aim is not only to provide a philosophical framework based in the pragmatism out of which the neurosciences initially grew, but also to modify and advance that framework in light of the fruits -as well as the limitations - of the neurosciences.

Author Biography

Tibor Solymosi is lecturer of philosophy in the Department of History and Government at Bowie State University in Maryland, USA. He graduated magna cum laude from Allegheny College and earned his doctorate at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, where he studied at the Center for John Dewey Studies. He has published peer-reviewed articles on consciousness, free will, ethics, and neurophilosophy.

John R. Shook was a professor of philosophy at Oklahoma State University, USA, from 2000 to 2006, and then he joined the faculty of the Science and the Public online EdM program at the University at Buffalo, New York, where he also is research associate in philosophy. He has authored and edited many volumes about pragmatism, naturalism, philosophy of science, and neurophilosophy.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface; Tibor Solymosi and John R. Shook
Notes on Contributors
PART I: PRAGMATISM, PHILOSOPHY, AND THE BRAIN
1. Neuropragmatism and the Reconstruction of Scientific and Humanistic Worldviews; John R. Shook and Tibor Solymosi
2. Keeping the Pragmatism in Neuropragmatism; Mark Johnson
3. How Computational Neuroscience Revealed that the Pragmatists Were Right; W. Teed Rockwell
4. Pragmatism, Cognitive Capacity, and Brain Function; Jay Schulkin
PART II: COGNITION, EMOTION, AND THE WORLD
5. The End of the Debate over Extended Cognition; Jeffrey B. Wagman and Anthony Chemero
6. Knowing and the Known: Brain Science and an Empirically Responsible Epistemology; David D. Franks
7. Dewey's Rejection of the Emotion/Expression Distinction; Joel Krueger
PART III: CREATIVITY, EDUCATION, AND APPLICATION
8. Finding Unapparent Connections: How Our Hominin Ancestors Evolved Creativity by Solving Practical Problems; Robert Arp
9. Neuropragmatism and Apprenticeship: A Model for Education; Bill Bywater and Zachary Piso
10. A Neuropragmatist Framework for Childhood Education: Integrating Pragmatism and Neuroscience to Actualize Article 29 of the UN Child Convention; Alireza Moula, Antony J. Puddephatt and Simin Mohseni
PART IV: ETHICS, NEUROSCIENCE, AND POSSIBILITY
11. Understanding the Contribution of Neuroscience to Ethics Within an Interdisciplinary Pragmatic Framework; Eric Racine
12. Pragmatic Ethics: A Dynamical Theory Based on Active Responsibility; Markate Daly
13. Moral First Aid for a Neuroscientific Age; Tibor Solymosi
Index