Mental Mechanisms: Philosophical Perspectives on Cognitive Neuroscience

by William Bechtel

Overview

A variety of scientific disciplines have set as their task explaining mental activities, recognizing that in some way these activities depend upon our brain. But, until recently, the opportunities to conduct experiments directly on our brains were limited. As a result, research efforts were split between disciplines such as cognitive psychology, li

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781136679704
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/29/2007
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

William Bechtel

Table of Contents

1. Naturalism and Mechanism: Outlines of a New Philosophy of Science. 2. From Mental Phenomena to Operations: Delineating and Decomposing Memory. 3. From Working Parts to Operations: Decomposing and Resynthesizing Visual Processing. 4. Reduction and Independence of Higher-Level Sciences: A Rapprochement. 5. Representations and Mental Mechanisms. 6. From Responsive to Active Mechanisms. 7. Confronting Mechanism's Critics: Accounting for Freedom and Dignity via Mental Mechanisms.

Editorial Reviews

"Mental Mechanisms provides one of the best accounts of the notion of a mechanism, detailing its prevalence in the practice of cognitive neuroscience. . . . [T]his is an important book that succeeds admirably in spelling out the mechanistic approach, its implications, and its empirical applications. Because of this, Mental Mechanisms should spark interest in anyone working on reduction and explanation in the sciences of the mind and brain."

-Kinesis

From the Publisher