Philosophy of Mind: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge Contemporary Introductions to Philosophy)

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Summary: The Ontology of Underemployed Philosophers
Review: John Heil's book is a very good survey of the nonsense called, "Philosophy of Mind", which is field of philosophy that proves that society doesn't have enough Great Ideas to go around. Chapter after chapter explains how important philosophers are at this moment making wild guesses about something they do not have a clue about: how the brain makes consciousness. One reads this book and thinks, "Poor philosophy, it over did it with language and now it's wasting our time with ingenious ideas like: the mind is a computer program!" Egads. No doubt if these same fellows (and there seems to be plenty of fellows and few girls wondering how the gunk in the noggin' works) lived in the age of trains they would describe the mind as a locomotive engine. Or, if they lived in ancient China they would try to convince people that they walked around with an abacus inside their skulls.

Heil's big point is that consciousness inevitably poses "ontological" problems. Not only does the mind have "dispositions", it turns out that it also has "qualities." Well, now isn't that dandy. I'll sleep better tonight knowing that tomorrow I'll wake up and shake my dispositions and qualities into shape... with the help of a cup of coffee.

Well written!

Rating:
Summary: It Usually Begins With Descartes
Review: PHILOSOPHY OF MIND is one of Routledge's "Contemporary Introduction to Philosophy" series. Although there are other similar series, this is my favorite because the contributions are particularly comprehensive.

Professor Heil's work is no exception. This book takes as its point of departure (like most such works it seems) Descartes' approach to the mind/body problem. Prof. Heil then discusses important philosophical and psychological approaches (Watson and Skinner, for example) to the philosophy of mind.

The work discusses some of the questions that are often left out of introductory works on the topic, such as artificial intelligence and biological evolution. This book can be used by someone who is a beginner, or someone who is familiar with the basic issues in philosophy but wishes to get a better understanding of the issues.

I've just finished reading Stanley Jaki's BRAIN, MIND AND COMPUTERS which discusses many of these issue from a broader theological and philosophical perspective. I think the books complement each other quite well.