Distributed cognition and the will : individual volition and social context / edited by Don Ross ... [et al.].

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Ross, Don, 1962-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Will.

Act (Philosophy).

Distributed cognition.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (381 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Philosophers and behavioral scientists discuss what, if anything, of the traditional concept of individual conscious will can survive recent scientific discoveries that human decision-making is distributed across different brain processes and through the social environment.Recent scientific findings about human decision making would seem to threaten the traditional concept of the individual conscious will. The will is threatened from "below" by the discovery that our apparently spontaneous actions are actually controlled and initiated from below the level of our conscious awareness, and from "above" by the recognition that we adapt our actions according to social dynamics of which we are seldom aware. In Distributed Cognition and the Will, leading philosophers and behavioral scientists consider how much, if anything, of the traditional concept of the individual conscious will survives these discoveries, and they assess the implications for our sense of freedom and responsibility. The contributors all take science seriously, and they are inspired by the idea that apparent threats to the cogency of the idea of will might instead become the basis of its reemergence as a scientific subject. They consider macro-scale issues of society and culture, the micro-scale dynamics of the mind/brain, and connections between macro-scale and micro-scale phenomena in the self-guidance and self-regulation of personal behavior.ContributorsGeorge Ainslie, Wayne Christensen, Andy Clark, Paul Sheldon Davies, Daniel C. Dennett, Lawrence A. Lengbeyer, Dan Lloyd, Philip Pettit, Don Ross, Tamler Sommers, Betsy Sparrow, Mariam Thalos, Jeffrey B. Vancouver, Daniel M. Wegner, Tadeusz W. Zawidzki

Contents:

Introduction / Don Ross

The puzzle of coaction / Daniel M. Wegner and Betsy Sparrow

What kind of agent are we? : a naturalistic framework for the study of human agency / Paul Sheldon Davies

The illusion of freedom evolves / Tamler Sommers

Neuroscience and agent-control / Philip Pettit

My body has a mind of its own / Daniel C. Dennett

Soft selves and ecological control / Andy Clark

The sources of behavior : towards a naturalistic, control account of agency / Mariam Thalos

Thought experiments that explore where controlled experiments can't : the example of will / George Ainslie

The economic and evolutionary basis of selves / Don Ross

Situated cognition : the perspect model / Lawrence Lengbeyer

The evolutionary origins of volition / Wayne Christensen

What determines the self in self-regulation? applied psychology's struggle with will / Jeffrey B. Vancouver and Tadeusz W. Zawidzki

Civil schizophrenia / Dan Lloyd.

Notes:

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

"A Bradford book."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612099076

9780262309080

0262309084

9781282099074

1282099078

9780262282635

0262282631

9781429492423

1429492422

OCLC:

170968073