Brains, Buddhas, and believing : the problem of intentionality in classical Buddhist and cognitive-scientific philosophy of mind / Dan Arnold.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Arnold, Daniel Anderson, 1965-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Intentionality (Philosophy).

Buddhist philosophy.

Philosophy of mind.

Philosophy, Comparative.

Physical Description:

xii, 311 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, 2012.

Contents:

1 Dharmakirti's Proof of Rebirth: A Dualist Account of the Causes of Cognition 19

Introduction: Dharmakirti as Empiricist 19

Causation and Subjectivity: Dharmakirti's Representationalism 24

"Compassion is the Proof": Dharmakirti's Arguments for Dualism 31

What Kind of Argument is This? On the Causes of Cognition, and the Rest of this Book 40

2 The Cognitive-Scientific Revolution: Computationalism and the Problem of Mental Causation 48

The "Amazingly Hard Problem": Mental Causation and Philosophy of Mind 48

Enter Computationalism 52

Narrow Content and Methodological Solipsism: Fodor's Brief for Inferiority 58

The "Language of Thought": An Account of Language Itself as Causally Describable 66

Conclusion: Does Dennett's Approach Represent an Alternative? 75

3 Responsiveness to Reasons as Such: A Kantian Account of Intentionality 81

Introduction: From Brentano's "Reference to a Content" to Propositional Attitudes 81

The "Transcendental Unity of Apperception" and the Nature of Judgment 84

On Conceptual Capacities as "Spontaneous" 90

First Part of a Case Against Physicalism: McDowell's Reconstruction of the "Sellarsian Transcendental Argument" 94

"Second Nature": On Reading McDowell as a Critic of Physicalism 100

A Necessary Complement to McDowell's Argument: What Kant's Second Critique Adds to His First 108

Conclusion: Rationality and the First-Person Perspective 113

4 The Apoha Doctrine: Dharmakirti's Account of Mental Content 116

Introduction: Apoha Theory as a Nonintentional Account of Mental Content 116

Dignaga's Account of Apoha: Conceptual Content as Defined by Inferential Relations 123

On Learning Conventions: Dignaga's "Augustinian" Presuppositions 128

Dharmakirti's Account of Apoha: Causally Linking Percepts and Concepts 133

Problems with the Focus on Inwardness: Dharmakirtion "Speaker's Intention" 141

Dharmakirti on Conceptual Thought as Essentially Mnemonic 146

Conclusion: Samketakala as "Meaning-Conferring Experience" 152

5 The Svasamvitti Doctrine: Dharmakirti's "Methodological Solipsism" 158

Introduction: Perceptual and Constitutive Understandings of Self-awareness 158

Dignaga on Pramanaphala as Svasamvitti 165

Dharmaklirti's Culminating Argument for Svasamvitti: "Sahopalambhaniyama" 175

Svasamvitti and Causal Explanation 183

On What Dharmakirti's Argument Gets Us: Ramakantha on the Phenomenology of Time-Consciousness and the Limits of Causal Explanation 189

Conclusion: Dharmakirti's Cognitivism 194

6 Indian Arguments from Practical Reason: Mimamsakas and Madhyamikas Contra Cognitivism 199

Introduction: Dharmakirti on Practical Reason 199

Mimamsa: Practical Reason as Linguistic, Language as Timeless 201

Is Language Mind-Independent? 208

Dharmakirti's Concession: Practical Reason, Causal Explanation, and the Madhyamaka Impulse 212

The "Conventional" as the "Intentional": Madhyamaka Arguments for the Ineliminable Character of These 219

Conclusion: How to Think it Really True That the Logical Space of Reasons is Ineliminable 229

Concluding Reflections: Religious Studies and Philosophy of Mind 236.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780231145466

0231145462

9780231518215

0231518218

OCLC:

712931457