Mind Regained

Edward Pols

Published by Cornell University Press 1998

Mind Regained

Edward Pols

https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501744754

Overview
Contents

About this book

In this highly accessible book, a distinguished philosopher says current focus on the brain conceals the real powers of the mind. Edward Pols revisits one of the basic topics of philosophy: what is the distinction between mind and body and what is the relation between them? He disagrees fundamentally with the many contemporary philosophers who concentrate on the findings of neurophysiology and cognitive science and so look only to the brain for the causes and explanation of mind. Pols concedes the importance of such scientific studies but maintains that they focus on the infrastructure of mind and ignore the momentous difference between the infrastructure and mind itself.

Pols calls upon the reader to attend to mind itself as a concrete and experientially available reality. This kind of attention, he argues persuasively, reveals mind to be at once causally dependent on the brain and causally effective on the physical processes of the brain and the world. Pols also examines the hierarchical view of mind and causality first proposed by Plato and Aristotle, the supersession of that view by the received scientific doctrine of causality, and the mistaken denial of the power of the mind to know an independent reality—a denial that resulted from the philosophical doctrines about knowing developed in the era that began with Descartes and ended with Kant.

Author / Editor information

Edward Pols is Kenan Professor of Philosophy and the Humanities Emeritus at Bowdoin College. His most recent book, Radical Realism: Direct Knowing in Science and Philosophy, also from Cornell, brought him the John N. Findlay Award in 1995 from the Metaphysical Society of America.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface Edward Pols Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part One. Attending to Doctrines Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
Part Two. Attending to Mind Itself Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 176
Illustrations
- Other: 1 table
Keywords: Philosophy

eBook

Published: May 15, 2019
ISBN: 9781501744754