The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Mind

by McLaughlin, Brian; Beckermann, Ansgar; Walter, Sven

• ISBN13: 9780199262618
• ISBN10: 0199262616
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-03-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The study of the mind has always been one of the main preoccupations of philosophers, and has been a booming area of research in recent decades, with remarkable advances in psychology and neuroscience. Oxford University Press now presents the most authoritative and comprehensive guide ever published to the philosophy of mind. An outstanding international team of contributors offer 45 specially written critical surveys of a wide range of topics relating to the mind. The first two sections cover the place of the mind in the natural world: its ontological status, how it fits into the causal fabric of the universe, and the nature of consciousness. The third section focuses on the much-debated subjects of content and intentionality. The fourth section examines a variety of mental capacities, including memory, imagination, and emotion. The fifth section looks at epistemic issues, in particular regarding knowledge of one's own and other minds. The volume concludes with a section on self, personhood, and agency. The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Mind will be an invaluable resource for advanced students and scholars of philosophy, and also for researchers in neighboring disciplines seeking a high-level survey of the state of the art in this flourishing field.

Author Biography

Brian McLaughlin is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers
Ansgar Beckermann is Professor of Philosophy at University of Bielefeld, Germany
Sven Walter is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at University of Bielefeld, Germany

Table of Contents

The Place of Mind in Nature

Dualism

Idealism

Mental Causation

The Causal Closure of the Physical and Naturalism

Epiphenomenalism

Functionalism

Nonreductive Materialism

Anomalous Monism

What Is the Physical?

What Is Property Physicalism?

Panpsychism

The Place of Consciousness in Nature

The Explanatory Gap

Higher-order Theories of Consciousness

Sensory Qualities, Sensible Qualities

Representationalist Theories of Consciousness

Subjectivity

The Two-Dimensional Argument Against Materialism

Phenomenal Concepts

Intentionality and Theories of Mental Content

Intentionalism

Intentional Systems Theory

Information-theoretic Semantics

Biosemantics

The Normativity of the Intentional

Advertisement for a Measurement-theoretic Account of Propositional Attitudes

Concepts and Possession Conditions

Wide Content

Narrow Content

The Distinction between Conceptual and Nonconceptual Content

The Content of Perceptual Experience

Phenomenology, Intentionality, and the Unity of the Mind

Mental Capacities

Thinking

Memory

Imagination

Language and Thought

Consciousness and Reference

Emotions: Motivating Feelings

Epistemic Issues

Folk Psychology

Other Minds

Introspection

Self-deception

Semantic Externalism and Self-knowledge

Self, Personhood, and Agency

Unity of Consciousness

Personal Identity and Metaphysics

Selves

Intention and Intentional Action

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