Matters of the mind / William Lyons.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lyons, William (William E.)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philosophy of mind.

Physical Description:

xxix, 288 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 2001.

Summary:

In Matters of the Mind, the distinguished philosopher William Lyons presents a popular and authoritative account of the very dramatic shifts of viewpoint in thinking about the mind in philosophy. In providing this account, the narrative draws also upon work in psychology, neurophysiology and computing. Written in a clear and lively non-technical style the book provides a coherent account of speculations about the nature of the mind suitable for the general reader or beginning student. The description moves from the behaviorists' attack on Cartesianism, through the materialist and then the functionalist positions, and on to the 'hard problem' of the relationship of brain states to consciousness. The final chapter offers a synoptic view of progress achieved and work still to be done.

Matters of the Mind is a fascinating story of the crucial debates about the nature of mind in our time. The book is illustrated with more than 60 black and white line drawings and photographs.

Contents:

1 The Twilight of the 'Two Worlds' View 1

The soul clapped hands 1

The Cartesian legacy 13

Gaps in the theory 24

Practical problems 30

2 Observing the Human Animal 37

The behaviourist manifesto 37

Logical positivism and the 'logico-linguistic turn' 45

Philosophical or logical behaviourism 54

'The problem of diffuseness' 62

'The problem of privacy' 68

3 Nothing but the Brain 79

New knowledge about the brain 79

The 'identity theory' of mind 94

Identities prove elusive 107

'Out of date, eliminate' 114

The labelling fallacy 121

4 Computers to the Rescue 129

Computers come of age 129

Computer programs and human intelligence 142

The mind as the computer's software 151

Functionalism becomes the orthodoxy of the day 156

Chinese puzzles 162

Absent qualia, inverted spectra and blindsight 168

5 The Bogey of Consciousness 175

The case of the guillotined head 175

Of bats and eels 180

Subjectivity 185

The appearance of the Djin 189

Epistemological pessimism 196

Knowing how and knowing why 202

6 The Pit and the Pendulum 209

The pit and the pendulum 209

Avoiding philosophical anorexia 214

Substituting scientia for science 220

Admitting consciousness into the realm of the physical 230

Avoiding double vision 236

Minds, and who may have them 241

A Lamarckian valediction 252.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-282) and index.

ISBN:

0415937884

OCLC:

47848803