Contemporary Philosophy of Mind

This volume is an introduction to contemporary debates in the philosophy of mind. In particular, the author focuses on the controversial "eliminativist" and "instrumentalist" attacks - from philosophers such as of Quine, Dennett, and the Churchlands - on our ordinary concept of mind. In so doing, Rey offers an explication and defense of "mental realism", and shows how Fodor's representational theory of mind affords a compelling account of much of our ordinary mental talk of beliefs, hopes, and desires.

Preface. Introduction. 1. Problems and Preliminaries. 2. The Temptations to Dualism. 3. Eliminativism: Philosophical Issues. 4. Eliminativism: Empirical Issues. 5. Mentalism: Pre-Functionalist Views. 6. Functionalism: Commonalities. 7. Functionalism: Differences. 8. CRTT: Computation (Meeting Descartes' Challenge). 9. CRTT: Representation (Meeting Brentano's Challenge). Replies to Common Objectives. Further Capacities (Meeting Levine's Challenge).