Leibniz's Naturalized Philosophy of Mind
Leibniz's Naturalized Philosophy of Mind

Author: Larry M. Jorgensen

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-02-21

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 0191023973

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Larry M. Jorgensen provides a systematic reappraisal of Leibniz's philosophy of mind, revealing the full metaphysical background that allowed Leibniz to see farther than most of his contemporaries. In recent philosophy much effort has been put into discovering a naturalized theory of mind. Leibniz's efforts to reach a similar goal three hundred years earlier offer a critical stance from which we can assess our own theories. But while the goals might be similar, the content of Leibniz's theory significantly diverges from that of today's thought. Perhaps surprisingly, Leibniz's theological commitments yielded a thoroughgoing naturalizing methodology: the properties of an object are explicable in terms of the object's nature. Larry M. Jorgensen shows how this methodology led Leibniz to a fully natural theory of mind.

The Routledge Handbook of Consciousness
The Routledge Handbook of Consciousness

Author: Rocco J. Gennaro

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-03-15

Total Pages: 775

ISBN-13: 1317386809

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There has been an explosion of work on consciousness in the last 30–40 years from philosophers, psychologists, and neurologists. Thus, there is a need for an interdisciplinary, comprehensive volume in the field that brings together contributions from a wide range of experts on fundamental and cutting-edge topics. The Routledge Handbook of Consciousness fills this need and makes each chapter’s importance understandable to students and researchers from a variety of backgrounds. Designed to complement and better explain primary sources, this volume is a valuable "first-stop" publication for undergraduate or graduate students enrolled in any course on "Consciousness," "Philosophy of Mind," or "Philosophy of Psychology," as well as a valuable handbook for researchers in these fields who want a useful reference to have close at hand. The 34 chapters, all published here for the first time, are divided into three parts: Part I covers the "History and Background Metaphysics" of consciousness, such as dualism, materialism, free will, and personal identity, and includes a chapter on Indian philosophy. Part II is on specific "Contemporary Theories of Consciousness," with chapters on representational, information integration, global workspace, attention-based, and quantum theories. Part III is entitled "Major Topics in Consciousness Research," with chapters on psychopathologies, dreaming, meditation, time, action, emotion, multisensory experience, animal and robot consciousness, and the unity of consciousness. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction and concludes with a list of "Related Topics," as well as a list of "References," making the volume indispensable for the newcomer and experienced researcher alike.

In Defense of Intuitions
In Defense of Intuitions

Author: A. Chapman

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2013-10-06

Total Pages: 694

ISBN-13: 1137347953

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A reply to contemporary skepticism about intuitions and a priori knowledge, and a defense of neo-rationalism from a contemporary Kantian standpoint, focusing on the theory of rational intuitions and on solving the two core problems of justifying and explaining them.

Centering and Extending
Centering and Extending

Author: Steven G. Smith

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2017-03-27

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 1438464231

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An original metaphysical proposal building on classical and contemporary sources. In Centering and Extending, Steven G. Smith retrieves and refashions some of the best ideas of classical and early modern metaphysics to support insight into the natures of mental and material beings and their relations. Avoiding what he critiques as distortive paths of idealism, materialism, repressive monism, and overly permissive pluralism, Smith builds his framework on centering and extending as universal principles of formation. Identifying the basic consistency of being with these principles in symmetrical partnership enables a naturalist process view that, unlike Whitehead’s, does not overbalance toward the subjective and teleological and, unlike Deleuze and Guattari’s, does not overbalance toward the material and chaotic. This view supports useful conceptions of mind and matter, form and energy, reason and cause, and a layered world order without relying on a blind concept of supervenience or emergence. It also respects and reinforces a division of roles between metaphysical sense-making and spiritual determinations of meaningfulness. “This is a highly original, speculative, and deeply learned metaphysical treatise on the basic categories of existence needed to account for human experience of the world. It contributes to the contemporary metaphysical discussion in Western philosophy by adding a new, intelligent, and interesting voice.” — Robert Cummings Neville, author of Ultimates: Philosophical Theology, Volume One

Thinking in Complexity
Thinking in Complexity

Author: Klaus Mainzer

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2007-09-10

Total Pages: 491

ISBN-13: 3540722270

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This new edition also treats smart materials and artificial life. A new chapter on information and computational dynamics takes up many recent discussions in the community.

Quintessence
Quintessence

Author: Willard Van Orman Quine

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2008-04-30

Total Pages: 431

ISBN-13: 0674027558

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Through the first half of the twentieth century, analytic philosophy was dominated by Russell, Wittgenstein, and Carnap. Influenced by Russell and especially by Carnap, another towering figure, Willard Van Orman Quine (1908Ð2000) emerged as the most important proponent of analytic philosophy during the second half of the century. Yet with twenty-three books and countless articles to his creditÑincluding, most famously, Word and Object and "Two Dogmas of Empiricism"ÑQuine remained a philosopher's philosopher, largely unknown to the general public. Quintessence for the first time collects Quine's classic essays (such as "Two Dogmas" and "On What There Is") in one volumeÑand thus offers readers a much-needed introduction to his general philosophy. Divided into six parts, the thirty-five selections take up analyticity and reductionism; the indeterminacy of translation of theoretical sentences and the inscrutability of reference; ontology; naturalized epistemology; philosophy of mind; and extensionalism. Representative of Quine at his best, these readings are fundamental not only to an appreciation of the philosopher and his work, but also to an understanding of the philosophical tradition that he so materially advanced.

Whitehead's Metaphysics of Power
Whitehead's Metaphysics of Power

Author: Pierfrancesco Basile

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2017-03-08

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 1474404162

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Shows how Whiteheads metaphysics developed from his reading of early modern philosophyAt the beginning of his magnum opus, Process and Reality (1929), Whitehead lists a series of beliefs which he thinks are widely held by contemporary philosophers. They are all condemned as dangerously mistaken.What are these myths?Why are they rejected?In the works of which modern thinker did they arise?What precisely went wrong?At what stage in the development of Western thought did this happen?By tackling these questions, Pierfrancesco Basile makes it possible to grasp the main concepts of Whiteheads process metaphysics especially the crucial notion that being and power are one and the same and appreciate the complex way this is rooted in the modern philosophical tradition.Key FeaturesShows how Whiteheads metaphysics of power and events is deeply rooted in mainstream Western philosophyIllustrates how our understanding of the great masters of the past Descartes, Locke, Hume, Leibniz and Spinoza benefit from viewing them from the standpoint of Whiteheads metaphysicsProvides a critical assessment of Whiteheads metaphysics and his overall philosophy

The Parmenidean Ascent
The Parmenidean Ascent

Author: Michael Della Rocca

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 0197510949

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The Parmenidean Ascent is a full-throated and wide-ranging defense of an extreme form of monism or the denial of all distinctions, a form of monism rarely seen since the time of the pre-Socratic philosopher, Parmenides. At once historically sensitive and deeply engaged with trends in recent and contemporary metaphysics, philosophy of action, epistemology, and philosophy of language, The Parmenidean Ascent aims, on rationalist grounds and in a skeptical spirit, to challenge the content of-and to overturn the methods of much of contemporary philosophy.