Natural Philosophy

From Social Brains to Knowledge, Reality, Morality, and Beauty (Treatise on Mind and Society)
Erscheinungsjahr 2021
ISBN: 978-0-19-761968-1
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 356 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 522 g

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Thagard, Paul

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Psychologie / Allgemeines & Theorie Psychologische Theorie, Psychoanalyse Kognitivismus
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Neurowissenschaften, Kognitionswissenschaft
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Moderne Philosophische Disziplinen Philosophie des Geistes, Neurophilosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Allgemeine Psychologie Kognitionspsychologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- 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 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

Über Autor(innen)

Paul Thagard is a distinguished philosopher and cognitive scientist who has written many books, including The Brain and the Meaning of Life (Princeton University Press, 2010) and The Cognitive Science of Science (MIT Press, 2012). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Cognitive Science Society, and the Association for Psychological Science.