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Emergence in Mind Cynthia Macdonald (Queen's University, Belfast)

Emergence in Mind By Cynthia Macdonald (Queen's University, Belfast)

Emergence in Mind by Cynthia Macdonald (Queen's University, Belfast)


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Summary

There have long been controversies about how minds can fit into a physical universe. In Emergence in Mind a distinguished group of philosophers discuss whether mental properties can be said to 'emerge' from physical processes. The discussion is extended to cover the role emergence may play in free will and agency, and in the special sciences.

Emergence in Mind Summary

Emergence in Mind by Cynthia Macdonald (Queen's University, Belfast)

There have long been controversies about how it is that minds can fit into a physical universe. Emergence in Mind presents new essays by a distinguished group of philosophers investigating whether mental properties can be said to 'emerge' from the physical processes in the universe. Such emergence requires mental properties to be different from physical properties, and much of the discussion relates to what the consequences of such a difference might be in areas such as freedom of the will, and the possibility of scientific explanations of non-physical (for example, social) phenomena. The volume also extends the debate about emergence by considering the independence of chemical properties from physical properties, and investigating what would need to be the case for there to be groups that could be said to exercise rationality.

Emergence in Mind Reviews

There is much work to be done on the topic of emergence in philosophy of mind. The essays in this volume make some considerable headway. * Philip Goff, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *

About Cynthia Macdonald (Queen's University, Belfast)

Cynthia Macdonald is Professor of Philosophy at Queen's University Belfast and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Her research interests focus on the metaphysical foundations of mental causation and explanation and authoritative self-knowledge. Related recent publications include Varieties of Things: Foundations of Contemporary Metaphysics (Oxford: Blackwell 2005), 'Consciousness, Self-Consciousness, and Authoritative Self-Knowledge', Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 108, (2008), and 'Introspection', in A. Beckermann, B. McLaughlin, and S. Walter, eds., the Oxford Handbook to the Philosophy of Mind (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2008). She is currently completing a monograph with Graham Macdonald on Mental Causation and Explanation in the Special Sciences, funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Foundation. Graham Macdonald was educated in South Africa and England. He is presently Distinguished International Fellow in the Institute of Cognition and Culture, Queen's University Belfast, and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Recent publications include 'The Metaphysics of Mental Causation'(with Cynthia Macdonald), Journal of Philosophy 2006, and 'The Two Natures: Another Dogma?', in C. Macdonald and G. Macdonald, eds., McDowell and His Critics (Blackwell 2007).

Table of Contents

1. Introduction ; 2. Cosmic Hermeneutics vs. Emergence: The Challenge of the Explanatory Gap. ; 3. Explanation, Emergence and Causality: Comments on Crane. ; 4. Is Nonreductive Physicalism Viable Within a Causal Powers Metaphysic? ; 5. Exclusion and Physicalism: Comments on O'Connor and Churchill. ; 6. Emergent Causation and Property Causation. ; 7. Emergence: Laws and Properties: Comments On Noordhof. ; 8. The Causal Autonomy of the Special Sciences. ; 9. Causal and Explanatory Autonomy: A Reply to Menzies and List. ; 10. Emergence and Downward Causation. ; 11. Identity With a Difference: Comments on Macdonald and Macdonald. ; 12. Can Any Sciences Be Special? ; 13. Can Any Sciences be Special? Comment on Papineau. ; 14. Emergence vs. Reduction in Chemistry. ; 15. An Emergentist's Perspective on the Problem of Free Will. ; 16. Strong Emergence and Freedom: Comment on A. Stephan. ; 17. Rationality, Reasoning and Group Agency.

Additional information

NPB9780199583621
9780199583621
0199583625
Emergence in Mind by Cynthia Macdonald (Queen's University, Belfast)
New
Hardback
Oxford University Press
2010-04-29
298
N/A
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