Neurophilosophy at Work PDF
263 Pages·2007·3.572 MB·English
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Without a doubt, this is truly state-of-the-art philosophy. Paul Churchland tackles a wide range of contemporary issues and he does it with aplomb. His eliminative materialist approach is quite effective as he tackles such issues as the anti-reductionist program of the Functionalist school or the ontological irreducibility of semantics endorsed by Fodor. His strategy is to apply the principles of intertheoretic reduction to these issues through the use of research in Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Neurobiology. Churchland writes with clarity, effiency and eloquence. His ability to use analogies to highlight key concepts is also impressive.
I'm sure there will be the usual alpha-male status-seeking behavior among the academics that results in the nitpicking of his work but he assembles his arguments with such care that I doubt his detractors will be up to the task. There are many within and outside of the academic community who simply can not accept a materialist theory of mind. It causes too much cognitive discomfort for the Cartesian Dualists to confront their utter lack of their own destiny-controllability. The loss of the homunculus is profoundly frightening to them.
If I were to make a minor suggestion it would be to integrate neurophilosophy with current research in the field of Behavior Analysis to achieve a more cohesive approach to cognitive research, e.g., the high-sensitivity of the global neuronal system to variable-ratio schedules of reinforcement. Another suggestion would be to explore the cultural pathologies of the concept of "free will" as it is consistently used as a basis for primitive ideologies that rationalize socially-corrosive forms of vengeance and cruel punishment along with pseudo-socioeconomic theories that never-endingly blame the poor for being poor.
One has to consider whether philosophy has now become potentially obsolete--displaced by the conceptual magnitude of the cognitive sciences that transforms atavistic philosophical debates into issues of empirical research.
A Nietzschean "transvaluation of all values" of humanity's basic perceptions of cognition may finally be in order here and Paul Churchland is the one to lead the charge.
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