Causality Interpretation And The Mind
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Causality Interpretation And The Mind
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Author : William Child
language : en
Publisher: Clarendon Press
Release Date : 1994-03-10
Causality Interpretation And The Mind written by William Child and has been published by Clarendon Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1994-03-10 with Philosophy categories.
William Child examines two central ideas in the philosophy of mind, and argues that (contrary to what many philosophers have thought) an understanding of the mind can and should include both. These are causalism, the idea that causality plays an essential role in our understanding of the mental; and interpretationism, the idea that we can gain an understanding of belief and desire by considering the ascription of attitudes to people on the basis of what they say and do.
Causality Interpretation And The Mind
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Author : T. William Child
language : en
Publisher:
Release Date : 1994
Causality Interpretation And The Mind written by T. William Child and has been published by this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1994 with Causation categories.
Exploring the relation between interpretationism and causal theories in the philosophy of mind, this text defends interpretationism as an approach to the propositional attitudes. It also defends causal theories of action-explanation and vision.
Causality And Mind
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Author : Nicholas Jolley
language : en
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Release Date : 2013-11-28
Causality And Mind written by Nicholas Jolley and has been published by OUP Oxford this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2013-11-28 with Philosophy categories.
Causality and Mind presents seventeen of Nicholas Jolley's essays on early modern philosophy, which focus on two main themes. One theme is the continuing debate over the nature of causality in the period from Descartes to Hume. Jolley shows that, despite his revolutionary stance, Descartes did no serious re-thinking about causality; it was left to his unorthodox disciple Malebranche to argue that there is no place for natural causality in the new mechanistic picture of the physical world. Several essays explore critical reactions to Malebranche's occasionalism in the writings of Leibniz, Berkeley, and Hume, and show how in their different ways Leibniz and Hume respond to Malebranche by re-instating the traditional view that science is the search for causes. A second theme of the volume is the set of issues posed by Descartes' innovations in the philosophy of mind. It is argued that Malebranche is once again a pivotal figure. In opposition to Descartes Malebranche insists that ideas, the objects of thought, are not psychological but abstract entities; he thus opposes Descartes' 'dustbin theory of the mind'. Malebranche also challenges Descartes' assumption that intentionality is a mark of the mental and his commitment to the superiority of self-knowledge over knowledge of body. Other essays discuss the debate over innate ideas, Locke's polemics against Descartes' theory of mind, and the issue of Leibniz's phenomenalism. A major aim of the volume is to show that philosophers in the period are systematic critics of their contemporaries and predecessors.
Mind And Causality
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Author : Alberto Peruzzi
language : en
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Release Date : 2004-02-25
Mind And Causality written by Alberto Peruzzi and has been published by John Benjamins Publishing this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2004-02-25 with Philosophy categories.
Which causal patterns are involved in mental processes?On what mechanisms does the self-organisation of cognitive structure rest? Can a naturalistic view account for the basic resources of intentionality, while avoiding the objections to reductive materialism? By considering the developmental, phenomenological and biological aspects linking mind and causality, this volume offers a state-of-the art theoretical proposal emphasising the fine-tuning of cognition with the complexity of bodily dynamics.In contrast to the de-coupling of mind from the physical environment in classical information-processing models, growth of brain’s architecture and stabilisation of perception–action cycles are considered decisive, with no need for an eliminative approach to representations pursued by neural network models. The tools provided by physics and biology for the description of massive causal interactions, on top of which ‘qualitative’ changes occur, are exploited to suggest a model of the mind as a many-layered, co-evolving system. (Series A)
Mind Ascribed
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Author : Bruno Mölder
language : en
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Release Date : 2010-08-18
Mind Ascribed written by Bruno Mölder and has been published by John Benjamins Publishing this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2010-08-18 with Philosophy categories.
This book provides a thoroughly worked out and systematic presentation of an interpretivist position in the philosophy of mind, of the view that having mental properties is a matter of interpretation. Bruno Mölder elaborates and defends a particular version of interpretivism, the ascription theory, which explicates the possession of mental states with contents in terms of their canonical ascribability, and shows how it can withstand various philosophical challenges. Apart from a defence of the ascription theory from the objections commonly directed against interpretivism, the book provides a critical analysis of major alternative accounts of mental state possession as well as the interpretivist ideas originating from Donald Davidson and Daniel Dennett. The viability of the approach is demonstrated by showing how one can treat mental causation as well as the faculties closely connected with consciousness – perception and the awareness of one’s own mental states – in the interpretivist framework. (Series A)
Mind Method And Conditionals
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Author : Frank Jackson
language : en
Publisher: Routledge
Release Date : 2002-11-01
Mind Method And Conditionals written by Frank Jackson and has been published by Routledge this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2002-11-01 with Philosophy categories.
First Published in 2004. This collection of essays brings together some of Jackson's most influential publications on mind, action, conditionals, method in metaphysics, ethics and induction. The papers have been revised for this volume and the collection also includes additional material by ay of endnotes and corrections. It also includes two new postscripts- one on conditionals and one disavowing the knowledge argument.
Causation In Science
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Author : Yemima Ben-Menahem
language : en
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Release Date : 2018-06-12
Causation In Science written by Yemima Ben-Menahem and has been published by Princeton University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2018-06-12 with Science categories.
This book explores the role of causal constraints in science, shifting our attention from causal relations between individual events--the focus of most philosophical treatments of causation—to a broad family of concepts and principles generating constraints on possible change. Yemima Ben-Menahem looks at determinism, locality, stability, symmetry principles, conservation laws, and the principle of least action—causal constraints that serve to distinguish events and processes that our best scientific theories mandate or allow from those they rule out. Ben-Menahem's approach reveals that causation is just as relevant to explaining why certain events fail to occur as it is to explaining events that do occur. She investigates the conceptual differences between, and interrelations of, members of the causal family, thereby clarifying problems at the heart of the philosophy of science. Ben-Menahem argues that the distinction between determinism and stability is pertinent to the philosophy of history and the foundations of statistical mechanics, and that the interplay of determinism and locality is crucial for understanding quantum mechanics. Providing historical perspective, she traces the causal constraints of contemporary science to traditional intuitions about causation, and demonstrates how the teleological appearance of some constraints is explained away in current scientific theories such as quantum mechanics. Causation in Science represents a bold challenge to both causal eliminativism and causal reductionism—the notions that causation has no place in science and that higher-level causal claims are reducible to the causal claims of fundamental physics.
Understanding Mental Causation
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Author : Andrea White
language : en
Publisher: White Rose University Press
Release Date : 2024-12-17
Understanding Mental Causation written by Andrea White and has been published by White Rose University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2024-12-17 with Philosophy categories.
Understanding Mental Causation proposes a new, non-relational theory of mental causation. Andrea White believes that contemporary philosophy of mind labours under a misapprehension of what mental causation is supposed to be. This volume explains where the leading theories go astray, and how the new theory proposed solves critical problems for philosophers of mind and action. Ordinary experience suggests that what we do with our bodies causally depends, somehow, on what is going on in our minds. However, the problem of how to understand the causal relationship between mind and body remains. Contemporary philosophy of mind is shaped by the question: how is it possible for the mental to causally interact with the physical? Mental causation is often presented as a cause-effect relation between mental and physical entities. This understanding of mental causation is widely endorsed because it seems like a straightforward explanation of what is going on when people act intentionally. Desires and beliefs are seen as causes of the actions they explain, entailing the existence of causal relations between mental items and physical events. White calls this the 'causalist' view of intentional action. This view is not universally accepted. The 'non-causalist' view denies that intentional action entails the existence of causal relations between mental items and physical events. However, non-causalists reach this conclusion by arguing that explanations of intentional actions which cite beliefs or desires are not usually causal explanations at all. White presents a theory of intentional action that falls between the 'causalist' and 'non-causalist' views. She rejects the idea that as-a-cause is how we should understand the place of mentality in intentional action. Concepts like belief, desire and intention do not refer to items which can stand in causal relations to actions or physical events. However, like causalists, she holds that explanations of intentional actions which cite the agent's thoughts do give causal information. This intermediary view demands a new theory about the causation that is on display when human beings act intentionally, one that does not reduce mental causation to a relation between mental items and physical events. Orthodox theories of causation, inspired by David Hume, assume that causation is always a relation between events. Therefore, the causation demonstrated in intentional action must be a relation, because all causation is, and will count as mental causation if and only if at least one of the terms of that relation is a mental entity. White challenges this orthodoxy by presenting her own non-relational theory of causation. Denying causation is always a relation, she holds instead that causation is a general type of process in which substances engage and that exercising a causal power is to engage in a process. White shows how this novel theory can be used to provide a better understanding of intentional action and the mental causation associated with it. She suggests that to act intentionally is to engage in a process and, as such, to exercise a power - but a power of a special sort. The power to act intentionally is a power to structure one's own activities so that they demonstrate a pattern - a pattern which is only revealed by attributing mental states to the agent. So, when an agent acts intentionally, they engage in the process of mental causation because the agent is manifesting a special power to organise their activities into a pattern that can be made sense of by appeal to mental concepts. Broadening our understanding of causation, and more specifically incorporating the concepts 'power' and 'process', opens up new ways of understanding intentional action and mental causation. In Understanding Mental Causation, White presents a compelling new account in this key area of philosophy of mind.
Causation Explanation And The Metaphysics Of Aspect
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Author : Bradford Skow
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2018-12-06
Causation Explanation And The Metaphysics Of Aspect written by Bradford Skow and has been published by Oxford University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2018-12-06 with Philosophy categories.
When you light a match it is the striking of it which causes the lighting; the presence of oxygen in the room is a background condition to the lighting. But in virtue of what is the striking a cause while the presence of oxygen is a background condition? When a fragile glass breaks it manifests a disposition to break when struck; however, not everything that breaks manifests this disposition. So under what conditions does something, in breaking, manifest fragility? After some therapy a man might stop being irascible and he might lose the disposition to become angry at the slightest provocation. If he does then he will have lost the disposition after an "internal" change. Can someone lose, or gain, a disposition merely as a result of a change in its external circumstances? Facts about the structure of society can, it seems, explain other facts. But how do they do it? Are there different kinds of structural explanations? Many things are said to be causes: a rock, when we say that the rock caused the window to break, and an event, when we say that the striking of the window caused its breakage. Which kind of causation - causation by events, or causation by things - is more basic? In Causation, Explanation, and the Metaphysics of Aspect, Bradford Skow defends answers to these questions. His answers rely on a pair of connected distinctions: first is the distinction between acting, or doing something, and not acting; second is the distinction between situations in which an event happens, and situations in which instead something is in some state. The first distinction is used to draw the second: an event happens if and only if something does something.
The Blackwell Dictionary Of Western Philosophy
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Author : Nicholas Bunnin
language : en
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Release Date : 2008-04-15
The Blackwell Dictionary Of Western Philosophy written by Nicholas Bunnin and has been published by John Wiley & Sons this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2008-04-15 with Philosophy categories.
The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy ???The style is fresh and engaging, and it gives a broad and accurate picture of the western philosophical tradition. It is a pleasure to browse in, even if one is not looking for an answer to a particular question.??? David Pears ???Its entries manage to avoid the obscurities of an exaggerated brevity without stretching themselves out, as if seeking to embody whole miniature essays. In short it presents itself as a model of clarity and clarification.??? Alan Montefiore