A Brief Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind

by Neil Campbell

One of the most profound philosophical problems is the nature of mind and its relationship to the body. A Brief Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind provides an introduction, written in clear language, to the various theories of the mind-body relationship, as well as a host of related philosophical discussions about mind and consciousness. The central theories, such as Cartesian Dualism, parallelism, epiphenomenalism, and supervenience among others, are presented in historical order. Their claims, their strengths and weaknesses, and how they ultimately relate to one another and to other philosophical questions are explored objectively, allowing readers to decide for themselves which theories are best.

Genres: Philosophy

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Hossein]

مناسب برای مواجهه‌ی مقدماتی با فلسفه‌ی ذهن.
یکی از منابع بی‌شمارِ درس فلسفه‌ی ذهن ترمِ پیش.

[Alfredo J.]

به نظر من اگه کسی بخواد در زمینه‌ی فلسفه و روانشناسی مطالعه جدی و عمیقی داشته باشه ، شناخت ذهن خیلی میتونه بهش کمک کنه. این کتاب شامل اطلاعات مختصر و البته مفیدی در زمینه‌ی نظریه‌های ذهن هستش. کار رو با توضیح دوگانه گرایی شروع میکنه و بعد تک تک نظریه های مخالف (فیزیکالیسم) رو بررسی میکنه. در آخر هم انتخاب بین فیزیکالیسم و دوگانه گرایی رو میذاره به عهده خواننده. در مجموع کتاب بسیار خوبی بود، ترجمه محمد یوسفی خیلی خوب بود.

[C]

This was the first full philosophical text I've ever read and as I'm doing it on my own and not as part of a class that might provide more context, it's hard for me to judge whether this book actually presents a thorough and accurate picture of philosophy of mind. It certainly seems like a good beginner overview and the author defines all the new philosophical terms and concepts as he introduces them. I thought the explanations were all simple and clear enough that (other than one or two words elsewhere in the text whose meanings I wasn't totally sure of and had to look up) I was able to understand what all the terms meant. This is definitely a very brief overview of a complex subject and it doesn't go into the historical or social contexts of the various theories except to go chronologically and give a few dates for Descartes' life. It also doesn't present any of the various theories or perspectives as being correct or incorrect, just points out commonly acknowledged flaws and inconsistencies in their arguments and mentions whether they're commonly accepted among philosophers in the field today.
Overall, with the caveat I know nothing about theory of mind other than what I read in this book, I think it was very clearly and concisely written, didn't require outside sources just to understand the terms being used, and importantly, wasn't boring!