Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Paul Thagard (Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Waterloo)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 16.30cm , Height: 2.60cm , Length: 24.30cm
Weight:   0.654kg
ISBN:  

9780190678739

ISBN 10:   0190678739
Pages:   336
Publication Date:   21 March 2019
Audience:   Adult education ,  College/higher education ,  Further / Higher Education ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

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 The 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

Reviews

Thagard embraces what he calls the three analysis method-i.e., providing exemplars, typical features, and explanations. He applies this methodology extensively throughout the text to philosophical questions related to such topics as mind, knowledge, reality, morality, meaning, and beauty. Though this strategy does not yield answers that reign with unchallengeable certainty, as Thagard writes in chapter 1, it does provide answers-or, better, hypotheses that are consistent with a metaphysics based in scientific realism and an epistemology based in reliable coherentism. -- H. Storl, Augustana College, Choice With the appearance of Natural Philosophy, Paul Thagard, one of the foremost proponents of philosophical naturalism in our time, establishes how the social, cognitive, and brain sciences, and Chris Eliasmith's Semantic Pointer Architecture, in particular, provide resources for a rigorous, scientifically-informed, and systematic approach to the entire range of classical philosophical problems. Thagard's Natural Philosophy is not a program of reduction but rather one of integration, which examines what are, in a scientific age, the inevitable interconnections and interdependence of these sciences and the perennial projects of philosophy - including metaphysics and mind, epistemology and ethics, and political philosophy and the philosophy of art. With the characteristic clarity, economy, and insight that have distinguished all of his work for more than four decades, Thagard demonstrates the strengths of a naturalistic philosophical program that attends to the relevant sciences, compared to its classical and contemporary competitors. --Robert N. McCauley, William Rand Kenan Jr. University Professor of Philosophy at the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture, Emory University and author of Why Religion Is Natural and Science Is Not (OUP) Drawing on the many original positions he has developed throughout his distinguished career in philosophy and cognitive science, Paul Thagard provides a synoptic overview of natural philosophy in his flowing, easy to read style. He makes use of the now widely accepted view, that he helped to develop, of interactions between mechanisms at multiple levels - the molecular, neuronal, mental, and social. The work admirably shows that philosophy can be, as he puts it 'extraverted, directing its attention to real world problems.' --Lindley Darden, Professor of Philosophy, University of Maryland, College Park Rather than focusing on providing the necessary and sufficient conditions for a concept or an event or on conscious experience and introspection, Thagard embraces what he calls the three analysis method--i.e., providing exemplars, typical features, and explanations. He applies this methodology extensively throughout the text to philosophical questions related to such topics as mind, knowledge, reality, morality, meaning, and beauty. Though this strategy does not yield answers that reign with unchallengeable certainty, as Thagard writes in chapter 1, it does provide answers--or, better, hypotheses that are consistent with a metaphysics based in scientific realism and an epistemology based in reliable coherentism. -- Choice

"""Thagard embraces what he calls the ""three analysis"" method-i.e., providing exemplars, typical features, and explanations. He applies this methodology extensively throughout the text to philosophical questions related to such topics as mind, knowledge, reality, morality, meaning, and beauty. Though this strategy ""does not yield answers that reign with unchallengeable certainty,"" as Thagard writes in chapter 1, it does provide answers-or, better, hypotheses that are consistent with a metaphysics based in scientific realism and an epistemology based in reliable coherentism."" -- H. Storl, Augustana College, Choice ""With the appearance of Natural Philosophy, Paul Thagard, one of the foremost proponents of philosophical naturalism in our time, establishes how the social, cognitive, and brain sciences, and Chris Eliasmith's Semantic Pointer Architecture, in particular, provide resources for a rigorous, scientifically-informed, and systematic approach to the entire range of classical philosophical problems. Thagard's Natural Philosophy is not a program of reduction but rather one of integration, which examines what are, in a scientific age, the inevitable interconnections and interdependence of these sciences and the perennial projects of philosophy - including metaphysics and mind, epistemology and ethics, and political philosophy and the philosophy of art. With the characteristic clarity, economy, and insight that have distinguished all of his work for more than four decades, Thagard demonstrates the strengths of a naturalistic philosophical program that attends to the relevant sciences, compared to its classical and contemporary competitors."" --Robert N. McCauley, William Rand Kenan Jr. University Professor of Philosophy at the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture, Emory University and author of Why Religion Is Natural and Science Is Not (OUP) ""Drawing on the many original positions he has developed throughout his distinguished career in philosophy and cognitive science, Paul Thagard provides a synoptic overview of natural philosophy in his flowing, easy to read style. He makes use of the now widely accepted view, that he helped to develop, of interactions between mechanisms at multiple levels - the molecular, neuronal, mental, and social. The work admirably shows that philosophy can be, as he puts it 'extraverted, directing its attention to real world problems.'"" --Lindley Darden, Professor of Philosophy, University of Maryland, College Park ""Rather than focusing on providing the necessary and sufficient conditions for a concept or an event or on conscious experience and introspection, Thagard embraces what he calls the ""three analysis"" method--i.e., providing exemplars, typical features, and explanations. He applies this methodology extensively throughout the text to philosophical questions related to such topics as mind, knowledge, reality, morality, meaning, and beauty. Though this strategy ""does not yield answers that reign with unchallengeable certainty,"" as Thagard writes in chapter 1, it does provide answers--or, better, hypotheses that are consistent with a metaphysics based in scientific realism and an epistemology based in reliable coherentism."" -- Choice"

Drawing on the many original positions he has developed throughout his distinguished career in philosophy and cognitive science, Paul Thagard provides a synoptic overview of natural philosophy in his flowing, easy to read style. He makes use of the now widely accepted view, that he helped to develop, of interactions between mechanisms at multiple levelsthe molecular, neuronal, mental, and social. The work admirably shows that philosophy can be, as he puts it 'extraverted, directing its attention to real world problems.' * Lindley Darden, Professor of Philosophy, University of Maryland, College Park * With the characteristic clarity, economy, and insight that have distinguished all of his work for more than four decades, Thagard demonstrates the strengths of a naturalistic philosophical program that attends to the relevant sciences, compared to its classical and contemporary competitors. * Robert N. McCauley, William Rand Kenan Jr. University Professor of Philosophy at the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture, Emory University and author of Why Religion Is Natural and Science Is Not (OUP) * With the appearance of Natural Philosophy, Paul Thagard, one of the foremost proponents of philosophical naturalism in our time, establishes how the social, cognitive, and brain sciences, and Chris Eliasmith's Semantic Pointer Architecture, in particular, provide resources for a rigorous, scientifically-informed, and systematic approach to the entire range of classical philosophical problems. Thagard's Natural Philosophy is not a program of reduction but rather one of integration, which examines what are, in a scientific age, the inevitable interconnections and interdependence of these sciences and the perennial projects of philosophyincluding metaphysics and mind, epistemology and ethics, and political philosophy and the philosophy of art.

Author Information

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.

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