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

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Ross, Don, 1962- editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Act (Philosophy).

Distributed cognition.

Will.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 369 pages) : illustrations

Other Title:

MIT Press CogNet.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2007]

System Details:

text file

Summary:

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.

Contents:

1 Introduction: Science Catches the Will / Don Ross 1

2 The Puzzle of Coaction / Daniel M. Wegner, Betsy Sparrow 17

3 What Kind of Agent Are We? A Naturalistic Framework for the Study of Human Agency / Paul Sheldon Davies 39

4 The Illusion of Freedom Evolves / Tamler Sommers 61

5 Neuroscience and Agent-Control / Philip Pettit 77

6 My Body Has a Mind of Its Own / Daniel C. Dennett 93

7 Soft Selves and Ecological Control / Andy Clark 101

8 The Sources of Behavior: Toward a Naturalistic, Control Account of Agency / Mariam Thalos 123

9 Thought Experiments That Explore Where Controlled Experiments Can't: The Example of Will / George Ainslie 169

10 The Economic and Evolutionary Basis of Selves / Don Ross 197

11 Situated Cognition: The Perspect Model / Lawrence Lengbeyer 227

12 The Evolutionary Origins of Volition / Wayne Christensen 255

13 What Determines the Self in Self-Regulation? Applied Psychology's Struggle with Will / Jeffrey B. Vancouver, Tadeusz W. Zawidzki 289

14 Civil Schizophrenia / Dan Lloyd 323.

Notes:

"A Bradford book."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Distributed cognition and the will.

ISBN:

9780262282635

0262282631

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.