[a] fine compendium of philosophical ideas and arguments

Ingo Brigandt, The Philosophical Quaterly (Oct 2010)

collects many excellent papers that provide a variety of perspectives on some very important core issues. It deserves wide readership and close study.

D. Gene Witmer, MIND01/06/2012

The general impression from the reading of this selection of studies is one of the sophisticated analysis, in line with the best Anglo-Saxon analytical tradition, on the real possibilities of conveying programs of reduction, on the different models available, and on their flaws and limits. This is certainly the most technical study published to date on this issue, the one paying greatest attention to detailand applying the most nanced distinctions.

Lluis Oviedo, ESSSAT News

There are few more unsettling philosophical questions than this: What happens in attempts to reduce some properties to some other more fundamental properties? Reflection on this question inevitably touches on very deep issues about ourselves, our own interactions with the world and each other, and our very understanding of what there is and what goes on around us. If we cannot command a clear view of these deep issues, then very many other debates in contemporary philosophy seem to lose traction - think of causation, laws of nature, explanation, consciousness, personal identity, intentionality, normativity, freedom, responsibility, justice, and so on. Reduction can easily seem to unravel our world. Here, an eminent group of philosophers helps us answer this question. Their novel contributions comfortably span a number of current debates in philosophy and cognitive science: what is the nature of reduction, of reductive explanation, of mental causation? The contributions range from approaches in theoretical metaphysics, over philosophy of the special sciences and physics, to interdisciplinary studies in psychiatry and neurobiology. The authors connect strands in contemporary philosophy that are often treated separately and in combination the chapters allow the reader to see how issues of reduction, explanation and causation mutually constrain each other. The anthology therefore moves the debate further both at the level of contributions to specific debates and at the level of integrating insights from a number of debates.
Les mer
Is the mind nothing but neural firings in the brain? Are we just a bunch of neurons? If the mind is just the brain, then how can we act as genuine, responsible agents in the world? Being Reduced attempts to understand these questions.
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Introduction ; 1. Reduction and Embodied Cognition:Perspectives from Medicine and Psychiatry ; 2. Real Reduction in Real Neuroscience: Metascience, Not Philosophy of Science (and Certainly Not Metaphysics!) ; 3. Reduction in Real Life ; 4. Group Agency and Supervenience ; 5. Reduction and Reductive Explanation: Is One Possible without the Other? ; 6. CP Laws, Reduction, and Explanatory Pluralism ; 7. Must a Physicalist be a Microphysicalist? ; 8. Why There Is Anything except Physics ; 9. Multiple realisation: keeping it real ; 10. Causation and determinable properties: on the efficacy of colour, shape and size ; 11. The exclusion problem, the determination relation, and contrastive causation ; 12. Mental Causation and Neural Mechanisms ; 13. Distinctions in Distinction ; 14. Exclusion again ; Index
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Presents cutting-edge research by an international team of leading philosophers Integrates key issues in contemporary philosophy of mind and science Ranges from theoretical metaphysics over philosophy of science to interdisciplinary studies, demonstrating how issues of reduction, explanation, and causation impact across the field
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Jakob Hohwy obtained his PhD from the Australian National University. He is a lecturer in philosophy at Monash University, Melbourne. Hohwy works on issues of reduction and explanation in science, and engages in interdisciplinary research with neuroscientists and psychiatrists. Jesper Kallestrup obtained his PhD from the University of St. Andrews. He is a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, and an associate fellow at Arché, the University of St. Andrews. Kallestrup works on issues of reduction, mental causation and the conceivability arguments in the philosophy of mind.
Les mer
Presents cutting-edge research by an international team of leading philosophers Integrates key issues in contemporary philosophy of mind and science Ranges from theoretical metaphysics over philosophy of science to interdisciplinary studies, demonstrating how issues of reduction, explanation, and causation impact across the field
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780199211531
Publisert
2008
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxford University Press
Vekt
670 gr
Høyde
240 mm
Bredde
164 mm
Dybde
25 mm
Aldersnivå
UU, UP, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
324

Biographical note

Jakob Hohwy obtained his PhD from the Australian National University. He is a lecturer in philosophy at Monash University, Melbourne. Hohwy works on issues of reduction and explanation in science, and engages in interdisciplinary research with neuroscientists and psychiatrists. Jesper Kallestrup obtained his PhD from the University of St. Andrews. He is a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, and an associate fellow at Arché, the University of St. Andrews. Kallestrup works on issues of reduction, mental causation and the conceivability arguments in the philosophy of mind.