Main description:

Paul Thagard uses new accounts of brain mechanisms and social interactions to forge theories of mind, knowledge, reality, morality, justice, meaning, and the arts. Natural Philosophy brings new methods for analyzing concepts, understanding values, and achieving coherence. It shows how to unify the humanities with the cognitive and social sciences.

How can people know what is real and strive to make the world better? Philosophy is the attempt to answer general questions about the nature of knowledge, reality, and values. Natural Philosophy pursues these questions by drawing heavily on the sciences and finds no room for supernatural entities such as souls, gods, and possible worlds. It provides original accounts of the traditional branches of philosophy, including epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics.

Rather than reducing the humanities to the sciences, this book displays fertile interconnections that show that philosophical questions and artistic practices can be much better understood by considering how human brains operate and interact in social contexts. The sciences and the humanities are interdependent, because both the natural and social sciences cannot avoid questions about methods and values that are primarily the province of philosophy.

This book belongs to a trio that includes Brain-Mind: From Neurons to Consciousness and Creativity and Mind-Society: From Brains to Social Sciences and Professions. They can be read independently, but together they make up a Treatise on Mind and Society that provides a unified and comprehensive treatment of the cognitive sciences, social sciences, professions, and humanities.

Contents:

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Philosophy Matters

Why Philosophy?
What is Philosophy?
Issues and Alternatives: Ways of Philosophizing
Elements of Natural Philosophy
Overview of This Book
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 1: Philosophy Matters

2. Mind

Mental Processes
Issues and Alternatives
Neural Mechanisms
Semantic Pointers
Inference to the Best Explanation to Multilevel Materialism
Philosophical Objections
Consciousness
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 2: Mind

Chapter 3. Knowledge

Minds and Knowledge
Issues and Alternatives
What is Knowledge?
The Growth of Knowledge
Justification
Probability
Knowledge is Social
Conceptual Change and the Brain Revolution
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 3: Knowledge

4. Reality

Make Reality Great Again
Issues and Alternatives
Existence
Truth
Space and Time
Groups and Society
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 4: Reality

5. Explanation

Knowledge Meets Reality
Issues and Alternatives
Styles of Explanation
Emotional and Social Aspects of Explanation
Causality
Reduction and Emergence
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 5: Explanation

6. Morality

Right and Wrong
Issues and Alternatives
Values
Moral Emotions
Objective Values and Rational Emotions
Needs
The Needs of Others
Empathy
Conflicting Needs and Ethical Coherence
Why is There Evil?
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 6: Morality

7. Justice

From Morality to Justice
Issues and Alternatives
Just Societies: Needs Sufficiency
Just Governments
Just Social Change
Basic Income
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 7: Justice

8. Meaning

Language and Life
Issues and Alternatives
Language and Mental Representation
The Meanings of Life
The Meaning of Death
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 8: Meaning

9. Beauty and Beyond

Aesthetics
Issues and Alternatives
Beauty in Painting
Other Emotions in Painting
Creativity in Painting
Beauty in Music
Other Emotions in Music
Creativity in Music
Empathy in Literature and Film
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 9: Beauty and Beyond

10. Future Philosophy

Looking Backwards and Forwards
Free Will
Mathematical Knowledge and Reality
Non-Humans: Animals and Machines
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 10: Future Philosophy

References

Index