The Mechanical Mind: A Philosophical Introduction to Minds, Machines and Mental Representation (Penguin Philosophy)

How can the human mind represent the world? How can thoughts direct themselves upon the world? Can there be a science of the mind? Should the mind be thought of as a type of machine? In particular, is the mind a computer of any kind?These questions are among the most intensely debated within contemporary philosophy of mind and psychology. Until now they have been the province of the specialist. But The Mechanical Mind is the first book to introduce these debates to the general reader in a straightforward, non-technical way. Tim Crane argues that all these philosophical problems arise because we have to accept a naturalistic, causal view of the mind: the view that states of mind are like other natural phenomena, causing and affecting things in the physical world. In a lucid and illuminating survey of the theories and arguments surrounding the ideas of thought and representation, Crane claims that this picture of the mind as a natural causal mechanism can be defended against its critics.Rigorous yet entertaining, this unique book offers both specialist and non-specialist alike a fascinating exploration of the theories of mind and thought debated in recent philosophy. It will be of interest to anyone who wants to understand how the human mind works.