Mind, Science and Computation
Napoleon M. Mabaquiao · PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation) · 2012
This book is about the relation among the concepts of mind, science, and computation. From the standpoint of cognitive science—the interdisciplinary scientific study of the mind—the working hypothesis for this relation is that the key to a scientific understanding of the mind is the concept of computation, which is just another way of putting the view that the way to naturalize the mind is through the computational framework. In particular, this book assesses the validity of the said hypothesis. The book is divided into two major parts. The first part makes a general survey of the fundamental issues and competing views in the discipline of philosophy of mind. This is intended to provide a proper orientation and background for the second part, which examines the plausibility of the computational framework and the feasibility of the project to naturalize the mind. These two parts can also be seen in another way: the first gives a general introduction to the discipline of the philosophy of mind, while the second provides one possible route into some of the current debates in the discipline. In this light, this book is good reading material for both beginners and advanced students in the philosophy of mind.