Philosophy of Animal Minds

by Robert W. Lurz

Overview

This volume is a collection of fourteen new essays by leading philosophers on issues concerning the nature, the existence, and our knowledge of animal minds. The nature of animal minds has been a topic of interest to philosophers since the origins of philosophy, and recent years have seen significant philosophical engagement with the subject. However, there is no volume that represents the current state of play in this important and growing field. The purpose of this volume is to highlight the state of the debate. The issues which are covered include whether and to what degree animals think in a language or in iconic structures, possess concepts, are conscious and self-aware, metacognize, attribute states of mind to others, and have emotions, as well as issues pertaining to our knowledge of mental states in animals and the scientific standards for attributing them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900521711813
Publication date:	09/03/2009
Pages:	322
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Robert W. Lurz is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York.

Table of Contents

List of contributors ix

Acknowledgments xi

The Philosophy of animal minds: an introduction Robert W. Lurz 1

1 What do animals think? Dale Jamieson 15

2 Attributing mental representations to animals Eric Saidel 35

3 Chrysippus' dog as a case study in non-linguistic cognition Michael Rescorla 52

4 Systematicity and intentional realism in honeybee navigation Michael Tetzlaff Georges Rey 72

5 Invertebrate concepts confront the generality constraint (and win) Peter Carruthers 89

6 A language of baboon thought? Elisabeth Camp 108

7 Animal communication and neo-expressivism Andrew McAninch Grant Goodrich Colin Allen 128

8 Mindreading in the animal kingdom José Luis Bermúdez 145

9 The representational basis of brute metacognition: a proposal Joëlle Proust 165

10 Animals, consciousness, and I-thoughts Rocco J. Gennaro 184

11 Self-awareness in animals David DeGrazia 201

12 The sophistication of non-human emotion Robert C. Roberts 218

13 Parsimony and models of animal minds Elliott Sober 237

14 The Primate mindreading controversy: a case study in simplicity and methodology in animal psychology Simon Fitzpatrick 258

Glossary of key terms 278

References 284

Index 306

Editorial Reviews

"For those familiar with the basic topics and threads of controversy The Philosophy of Animal Minds expands their understanding of the field and opens some new horizons."
Manuel Bremer, Metapsychology.net


"...this is a highly stimulating collection of papers which considerably advances the philosophy of animal minds. It will be of interest both within the borders of philosophy of mind and in the rapidly expanding scientific disciplines involved with animal thought and feeling."
—William Seager, University of Toronto, Scarborough, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

From the Publisher