
Matter and Consciousness : Contemporary Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind
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Description
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"
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Product details
- Paperback | 198 pages
- 145 x 226 x 12mm | 295g
- 22 Jan 1988
- MIT Press Ltd
- MIT Press
- Cambridge, Mass., United States
- English
- Revised
- 2nd Revised edition
- 0262530740
- 9780262530743
- 1,325,551
Review quote
"Churchland's "Matter and Consciousness" remains a compact treasure trove for anyone interested in an instant overview of the mind-body problem, related philosophical issues, and their connection with the developing neuro-and psychological sciences of our day."--Keith Gunderson, "Philosophy of Science"
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About Paul M. Churchland
Paul M. Churchland is Professor of Philosophy and a member of the Cognitive Science Faculty at the University of California at San Diego.
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