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Explaining the Brain Carl F. Craver (Washington University, St Louis)

Explaining the Brain By Carl F. Craver (Washington University, St Louis)

Explaining the Brain by Carl F. Craver (Washington University, St Louis)

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$45.99
Condition - Very Good
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Summary

Carl Craver investigates what we are doing when we use neuroscience to explain what's going on in the brain. When does an explanation succeed and when does it fail? Craver offers explicit standards for successful explanation of the workings of the brain, on the basis of a systematic view about what neuroscientific explanations are: they are descriptions of mechanisms.

Explaining the Brain Summary

Explaining the Brain: Mechanisms and the Mosaic Unity of Neuroscience by Carl F. Craver (Washington University, St Louis)

What distinguishes good explanations in neuroscience from bad? Carl F. Craver constructs and defends standards for evaluating neuroscientific explanations that are grounded in a systematic view of what neuroscientific explanations are: descriptions of multilevel mechanisms. In developing this approach, he draws on a wide range of examples in the history of neuroscience (e.g. Hodgkin and Huxleys model of the action potential and LTP as a putative explanation for different kinds of memory), as well as recent philosophical work on the nature of scientific explanation. Readers in neuroscience, psychology, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of science will find much to provoke and stimulate them in this book.

Explaining the Brain Reviews

This book should be of interest not just to those of us who care about philosophy of neuroscience, but also to philosophers of biology and philosophers of mind more generally. I expect it to shape debate for a long time to come. * Colin Klein, Mind *
Given how much attention has been paid to neuroscience, it is little surprising how slow philosophy of science has been in exploring the philosophical issues involved in explaining the brain and using the brain to explain behaviour. Carl Craver's book...represents this new direction, and an excellent addition to a burgeoning field it is...Explaining the Brain is timely, well-written, and meticulously argued...I highly recommend this text to anyone with any interest in how theories in neuroscience are constructed...Craver's book set the bar high. It will be difficult indeed to surpass this work in the near future. * Valerie Gray Hardcastle, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *

Table of Contents

Preface ; Chapter 1. Introduction: Starting With Neuroscience ; 1 Introduction ; 2 Explanations in Neuroscience Describe Mechanisms. ; 3 Explanations in Neuroscience are Multilevel ; 4 Explanations in Neuroscience Integrate Multiple Fields ; 5 Criteria of Adequacy for an Account of Explanation ; Chapter 2. Explanation and Causal Relevance ; 1 Introduction ; 2 How Calcium Explains Neurotransmitter Release ; 3 Explanation and Representation ; 4 The Covering-Law Model ; 5 The Unification Model ; 6 But What About the Hodgkin and Huxley Model? ; 7 Conclusion ; Chapter 3. Causal Relevance and Manipulation ; 1 Introduction ; 2 The Mechanism of Long-Term Potentiation ; 3 Causation as Transmission ; 3.1 Transmission and Causal Relevance ; 3.2 Omission and Prevention ; 4 Causation and Mechanical Connection ; 5 Manipulation and Causation ; 5.1 Ideal Interventions ; 5.2 Invariance, Fragility, and Contingency ; 5.3 Manipulation and Criteria for Explanation ; 5.4 Manipulation, Omission, and Prevention ; 6 Conclusion ; Chapter 4. The Norms of Mechanistic Explanation ; 1 Introduction ; 2 Two Normative Distinctions ; 3 Explaining the Action Potential ; 4 The Explanandum Phenomenon ; 5 Components ; 6 Activities ; 7 Organization ; 8 Constitutive Relevance ; 8.1 Relevance and the Boundaries of Mechanisms ; 8.2 Interlevel Experiments and Constitutive Relevance ; 8.21 Interference Experiments ; 8.22 Stimulation Experiments ; 8.23 Activation Experiments ; 8.3 Constitutive Relevance as Mutual Manipulability ; 9 Conclusion ; Chapter 5. A Field-Guide to Levels ; 1 Introduction ; 2 Levels of Spatial Memory ; 3 A Field-Guide to Levels ; 3.1 Levels of Science (Units and Products) ; 3.2 Levels of Nature ; 3.21 Causal Levels (Processing and Control) ; 3.22 Levels of Size ; 3.23 Levels of Composition ; 3.231 Levels of Mereology ; 3.232 Levels of Aggregativity ; 3.233 Levels of Mere Material/Spatial Containment ; 3.3 Levels of Mechanisms ; 4 Conclusion ; Chapter 6 Nonfundamental Explanation ; 1 Introduction ; 2. Causal Relevance and Making a Difference ; 3 Contrasts and Switch-Points ; 4 Causal Powers at Higher Levels of Mechanisms ; 5 Causal Relevance among Realized Properties ; 6 Conclusion ; Chapter 7. The Mosaic Unity of Neuroscience ; 1 Introduction ; 2 Reduction and the History of Neuroscience ; 2.1 LTP's Origins: Not a Top-Down Search but Intralevel Integration ; 2.2 The Mechanistic Shift ; 2.3 Mechanism as a Working Hypothesis ; 3 Intralevel Integration and the Mosaic Unity of Neuroscience ; 3.1 The Space of Possible Mechanisms ; 3.2 Specific Constraints on the Space of Possible Mechanisms ; 3.21 Componency Constraints ; 3.22 Spatial Constraints ; 3.23 Temporal Constraints ; 3.24 Active Constraints ; 3.3 Reduction and the Intralevel Integration of Fields ; 4 Interlevel Integration and the Mosaic Unity of Neuroscience ; 4.1 What is Interlevel Integration? ; 4.2 Constraints on Interlevel Integration ; 4.21 Accommodative Constraints ; 4.22 Spatial and Temporal Interlevel Constraints ; 4.23 Interlevel Manipulability Constraints ; 4.3 Mosaic Interlevel Integration ; 5 Conclusion: The Epistemic Function of the Mosaic Unity of Neuroscience

Additional information

GOR013792016
9780199299317
0199299315
Explaining the Brain: Mechanisms and the Mosaic Unity of Neuroscience by Carl F. Craver (Washington University, St Louis)
Carl F. Craver (Washington University, St Louis)
Used - Very Good
Hardback
Oxford University Press
2007-06-07
330
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Explaining the Brain