Status Updates From Philosophy of Mind and Cogn...

Begining to think reality might encompass both the mental primacy of idealism and the dual aspects of mind and matter that dualism emphasizes. Let's rule out materialism for a second....all u have left is idealism and dualism....but why does it have to be one or the other? Combine the two. Visualize consciousness as fundamental while also affirming a real distinction between mind and matter...

A quite un-interesting and not overly relevant treatment of concepts of narrow versus broad content.

Chapter 10 is beautifully written: it deals with my favourites theories of intentional states: the "language of thought" hypothesis and the map theory.

The deeply unsatisfactory theories of instrumentalism (and its interpretationist cousin) are explained. Intentional system theory is also briefly treated.

An OK but too brief treatment of the the complex issues raised by phenomenal qualities (aka "qualia").

Very nice treatment of well-known challenges to functionalism: the "China Brain", the ultra-famous "Chinese Room", and the "Blockhead" Gedankenexperiments.

Pretty standard, concisely but well written introduction to classical issues in identity theory (including the well-known alternatives between type-type and token-token identity theories). The level is introductory, at undergraduate level. The overall approach is very typical of a college textbook.

Chapter4: an excursus on theories of reference (with focus on the descriptive and causal theories). I found this chapter less clear and of lesser quality than the previous ones - definitely not one of the best treatments of theories of reference I have come across.

The attractive theory of "functionalism" is introduced. So far, it appears to me something difficult to distinguish from computational theories of mind.

A cogent explanation of important concepts such as epiphenomenalism, causal closure, supervenience. Behavioralism is explained, and its many shortcomings are highlighted.
It is a nice feature of this book that new concepts are clearly explained as soon as introduced. There is handy glossary at the end of the book. The writing style is occasionally dry, though (but generally precise and unambiguous).