We all have minds, but what exactly is a mind? Is your mind the same thing as your brain? How does what's happening in your mind cause your behaviour? Can you know what's going on in other people's minds? Can you even be sure what's going on in your own? Are babies conscious? How about cats? Or self-driving cars? Philosophy of mind grapples with questions like these, exploring who we are and how we fit into the world. In this student-friendly guide, McClelland introduces the key ideas in philosophy of mind, showing why ...
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We all have minds, but what exactly is a mind? Is your mind the same thing as your brain? How does what's happening in your mind cause your behaviour? Can you know what's going on in other people's minds? Can you even be sure what's going on in your own? Are babies conscious? How about cats? Or self-driving cars? Philosophy of mind grapples with questions like these, exploring who we are and how we fit into the world. In this student-friendly guide, McClelland introduces the key ideas in philosophy of mind, showing why they matter and how philosophers have tried to answer them. He covers the major historical moments in philosophy of mind, from Descartes and his troubles with immaterial souls up to today's 'consciousness wars'. Additionally, he examines the implications that philosophy of mind has for psychology, artificial intelligence and even particle physics. McClelland lays out the centuries-long dialogue between philosophy and science, presenting a uniquely grounded, practical picture of the field for students. Rich with real-world examples and written for the absolute beginner, What is Philosophy of Mind? gives students the tools to delve deeper into this dynamic field of philosophy.
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is an enchanted thing
like the glaze on a
katydid-wing
subdivided by sun
till the nettings are legion.
Like Gieseking playing Scarlatti;"
The American poet Marianne Moore captured the fascination and mystery of the mind in her 1943 poem, "The Mind is an Enchanted Thing"; and her poem might serve as an introduction to the ways philosophers, scientists, and lay individuals, as well as poets have thought about the mind. While Tom McClelland's new book, "What is Philosophy of Mind" (2021) does not discuss poetry, it explores other ways in which the mind continues to fascinate. McClelland is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. His short book guides helps readers to explore questions about the mind, about the relationship of philosophical to scientific study of mind, and about the nature and value of philosophy,
The book is clearly and succinctly written for the benefit of non-specialists, including students and those in the broader public with philosophical interests. An endearing feature of the book is the author's personalization of issues through the use of a soccer player named Mindy. During the closing moments of a soccer match, Mindy is about to take a penalty kick which will win the game if successful. McClelland sets out aspects of Mindy'a mental responses as she prepares for and executes her kick, including her desire to score, her memory of the goalkeeper's likely defense, her intention on how to aim her kick, her belief on how the goalkeeper will respond, her feeling of elation when the kick succeeds, and the nagging pain in the ankle which Mindy ignores under the pressure-filled moment of the kick. Throughout the book, McClelland returns to Mindy to illustrate various ways of understanding her responses and understanding the mind.
In his opening chapter, McClelland discusses the difficulties in pinning down the nature of mind and understanding the nature of philosophy which he describes as the "discipline that asks the big questions about life, the universe and everything. It asks metaphysical questions about the nature of reality, epistemological questions about our knoweldge of reality, and normative questions about the value of things in reality. It grapples with these questions by challenging our most basic assumptions, analysing our most foundational concepts and constructing a clear and coherent framework for thinking about the world."
Psychology, neurology, and computer science have made their own crucial contributions to understanding the mind. McClelland wants to show, however, that the approaches of these sciences do not eliminate the need for philosophical reflection about the mind and its nature. McClelland finds three "big questions" that philosophers have tried to answer about the nature of the mind: 1. What is the relationship between mind and matter? 2. How do we acquire knowledge about our own mind and the minds of others? 3. What sort of things have minds and what kind of minds do they have?
In successive chapters of the book, McClelland develops historically the answer philosophers have given to these questions. Each chapter beins with an exposition of the answer together with a discussion of the considerations that led to the answer and made it appealing. McClelland works towards assessing the answers each approach gives to the three big questions, explaining the insights of each answer and the ways in which it has been found wanting. He shows how the difficulties of one approach lead to the answers of another.
McClelland begins his analysis with the dualism between mind and body propounded by Descartes. He follows this with an exploration of two materialistic theories of the mind, known as behaviorism and as the identity theory. McClelland then gives a detailed, and in many respects sympathetic treatment of a functionalist treatment of the mind and its relationship to the computer revolution. He shows a number of ways in which functionalism may offer a materialistically based understanding of mind without the deficiencies of earlier forms of materialism.
Following the discussion of dualism, materialism, and functionalism, McClelland doubles back to study the nature of consciousness itself which seems to be left hanging by each of the three theories. He cautiously suggests that philosophers might focus too exclusively on the phenomenon of consciousness and that thinking more intently about matter and its properties might prove to be a more successful way of understanding the nature of consciousness.
The final chapter of the book offers suggestions on how philosophy and the sciences might better work together in understanding the nature of mind while suggesting that the large conceptual questions and questions of meaning studied by philosophy are unlikely to go away.
While perhaps not having the enchantment of Marianne Moore's poem or the evocative reference to "Gieseking playing Scarlatti", McClelland's book offers a good overview to the philosophy of mind and to the value of philosophical thinking about the mind. Each chapter of the book concludes with a series of important definitions and with a short list of suggestions for further reading. The book is part of a series published by Polity titled "What is Philosophy" which Polity describes as "[s]parkling short introductions to the key topics in philosophy, written with zero jargon by leading philosophers, ideal for the beginning-level student." Polity kindly sent me a copy of "What is Philosophy of Mind?" to review.
