The Mind As a Scientific Object: Between Brain and Culture

by Christina E. Erneling, David M. Johnson

Overview

What holds together the various fields that are supposed to consititute the general intellectual discipline that people now call cognitive science? In this book, Erneling and Johnson identify two problems with defining this discipline. First, some theorists identify the common subject matter as the mind, but scientists and philosophers have not been able to agree on any single, satisfactory answer to the question of what the mind is. Second, those who speculate about the general characteristics that belong to cognitive science tend to assume that all the particular fields falling under the rubric—psychology, linguistics, biology, and son on—are of roughly equal value in their ability to shed light on the nature of mind. This book argues that all the cognitive science disciplines are not equally able to provide answers to ontological questions about the mind, but rather that only neurophysiology and cultural psychology are suited to answer these questions. However, since the cultural account of mind has long been ignored in favor of the neurophysiological account, Erneling and Johnson bring together contributions that focus especially on different versions of the cultural account of the mind.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195139327
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/13/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	568
Product dimensions:	6.18(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.33(d)

Table of Contents

General Introduction, David JohnsonSection 1. Where Are we at Present, and How Did we Get There?1.0. Section Introduction, Christina Erneling1.1. The Relevance of the Philosophy of Psychology, Rom Harre1.2. Mind as Scientific Object: An Historical, Philosophical Exploration, Thomas Leahey1.3. The Emergence of Minds in Space and Time, Jagdish Hattiangadi1.4. Is the Mind a Scientific Object of Study?: Lessons from History, Otniel E. DrorSection 2. Is the Study of Mind Continuous with the Rest of Science?2.0. Section Introduction, David Johnson2.1. Psychology as Engineering, Thomas Leahey2.2. Epistemic Dualism, Gunther Stent2.3. Mind, Brain, and Culture, David Olson2.4. Chalmers' Naturalistic Dualism: A Case Study in the Irrelevance of the Mind-Body Problem to the Scientific Study of Consciousness, Don Ross2.5. Emergence and Efficacy, William SeagerSection 3. Eliminative Materialism: Sound or Mistaken?3.0. Section Introduction, David Johnson3.1. A Particularly Compelling Refutation of Eliminative Materialism, William Lycan3.2. Common-sense Refutations of Eliminativism, Ausonio Marras3.3. What Does it Take to be a True Believer?: Against the Opulent Ideology of Eliminative Materialism, David Henderson and Terrance Horgan3.4. Connectionism and the Propositional Attitudes, Barbara Von EckhardtSection 4. Is Mind Just another Name for the Brain and What the Brain Does?4.0. Section Introduction, Christina Erneling4.1. All in the Interest of Time-On the Problem of Speed and Cognition, Martin Ingvar4.2. Can There Be a Cognitive Neuroscience of Central Cognitive Systems?, Vinod Goel4.3. The Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory: A Framework for the Science of Mind, Itiel Dror and Robin Thomas4.4. Gall's Legacy Revisited: Decomposition and Localization in Cognitive Neuroscience, Tadeusz Zadwidski and William BechtelSection 5. Does Evolution Provide a Key to the Scientific Study of Mind?5.0. Section Introduction, Christina Erneling5.1. The Emergence of Thought, Peter Grdenfors5.2. The Mind as an Object of Scientific Study, Jagdish Hattiangadi5.3. The Significance of Ape Language Research, Stuart Shanker and Talbot J. Taylor5.4. I-Object: Mind and Brain as Darwinian Things, Charles LumsdenSection 6. Is the Mind a Cultural Entity?6.0. Section Introduction, David Johnson6.1. Ignace Meyerson and Cultural Psychology, Jerome Bruner6.2. Strong Culturalism, David Bakhurst6.3. 'Text' as a Model of the Mind, Jens BrockmeierSection 7. Rationality: Cultural or Natural?7.0. Section Introduction, Christina Erneling7.1. Beyond the Mind-Body Problem, Timothy van Gelder7.2. Workshop Rationality and the Reasonable Persistence of Dogmatism, Ian Jarvie7.3. Is Cognitive Development Equivalent to Scientific Development?, Christina E. Erneling7.4. Mind, Brain, and the Upper Paleolithic, David Martel Johnson8.1, Christina Erneling

Editorial Reviews

"This is an unusually cogent book, whose editors look beyond the accepted disciplinary structures of cognitive science to the environment and human culture in order to examine 'mind.' Erneling and Johnson succeed admirably in exploring the alternative of the cultural approach to mentality, whilst recognizing the significance of neurophysiology."—The Mind as a Scientific Object

"The Mind As a Scientific Object is interesting and accessible not just to specialists but to a wide, interdisciplinary audience as well. It presents with a picture of selected, important themes in the field of cognitive science that is deeper than was previously available, but that still manages to be of wide interest." —SirReadaLot.org

From the Publisher