Matter and Consciousness: A Contemporary Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind

Front Cover
MIT Press, 1988 - Philosophy - 184 pages

In "Matter and Consciousness," Paul Churchland clearly presents the advantages and disadvantages of such difficult issues in philosophy of mind as behaviorism, reductive materialism, functionalism, and eliminative materialism. This new edition incorporates the striking developments that have taken place in neuroscience, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence and notes their expanding relevance to philosophical issues.

Churchland organizes and clarifies the new theoretical and experimental results of the natural sciences for a wider philosophical audience, observing that this research bears directly on questions concerning the basic elements of cognitive activity and their implementation in real physical systems. (How is it, he asks, that living creatures perform some cognitive tasks so swiftly and easily, where computers do them only badly or not at all?) Most significant for philosophy, Churchland asserts, is the support these results tend to give to the reductive and the eliminative versions of materialism.

"A Bradford Book"

 

Contents

Chapter
6
Philosophical Behaviorism
23
Functionalism
36
Chapter 3
51
The Epistemological Problem
67
Chapter 5
83
Methodological Materialism
96
Artificial Intelligence
99
Chapter 7
114
Neurophysiology and Neural Organization
131
Cognitive Neurobiology
146
Chapter 8
167
Index
181
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

activity argument artificial intelligence axons behavior behaviorists beliefs body brain Cambridge capacity causal cells cerebellum chapter Churchland claim coding cognitive cognitive psychology common-sense complex concepts conceptual framework connections conscious intelligence constitute cortex creatures Descartes discrimination display electromagnetic elements Eliminative Materialism empirical evolutionary example explanation explanatory external folk psychology functional human identity theory inner input internal intertheoretic introspection judgments kind knowledge language laws machine materialist matter meaning Mind-Body Problem molecules motor nature nervous system neural neurons neuroscience nonphysical objects observable one's organization output pain parallel perception phenomena Philosophical Philosophy of Mind physical system possible predictive problem produced property dualism propositional attitudes propositional content psychology purely physical Purkinje cell qualia reason reduction relevant Reprinted scientific self-consciousness semantic sensation-of-red sensations sensory specific structure substance Suggested Readings synaptic theoretical terms theory of mind things types of mental vector visual

References to this book

About the author (1988)

Paul M. Churchland is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, SanDiego. He is the author of The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul,Matter and Consciousness: A Contemporary Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind(both published by the MIT Press), and other books.

Bibliographic information

TitleMatter and Consciousness: A Contemporary Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind
A Bradford book
AuthorPaul M. Churchland
Editionillustrated, reprint, revised
PublisherMIT Press, 1988
ISBN0262530740, 9780262530743
Length184 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Philosophy / Mind & Body
Philosophy / Movements / Humanism
Psychology / Cognitive Psychology & Cognition
Psychology / General
  
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