Churchland, Paul M.

The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul. A Philosophical Journey into the Brain.

First Edition. Cambridge / London, The MIT Press, 1995. 25.8cm x 18.4cm. xii, 329 (5) pages. Original hardcover in original illustrated dustjacket. In protective Mylar. Excellent condition with only minor signs of wear.

A new picture of the mind is emerging and explanations now exist for what has so long seemed mysterious. In this work, Churchland brings together a broad range of intellectual issues. He summarizes results from neuroscience and recent work with artificial neural networks that together suggest a unified set of answers to questions about how the brain actually works; how it sustains a thinking, feeling, dreaming self; and how it sustains a self-conscious person. The book first explains the science – the powerful role of vector coding in sensory representation and pattern recognition, artificial neural networks that imitate parts of the brain, recurrent networks, neural representation of the social world and diagnostic technologies and therapies for the brain in trouble. It then explores the far-reaching consequences of the current neurocomputational understanding of mind for our philosophical convictions, and for our social, moral, legal, medical and personal lives. Churchland introduces the presentational power of a single human brain, for instance, via a brain/World-Trade-Tower TV screen analogy. “Who can be watching this pixilated show?” Churchland queries; the answer is a provocative “no one.” The book includes a folded stereoscopic viewer, attached to the inside back cover, that readers can use to participate directly in several revealing experiments concerning stereo vision.

Includes: The newly transparent brain/ How the brain represents the world/ Brains versus TV screens/ Computation in the brain/ The cunning of reason: parallel distributed processing/ Speed and power/ Reworking the mirror of our self conception/ Sensory representation: the incredible power of vector coding/ Taste, colour, smell, face coding/ Vector processing: how it works and why it is essential/ Artificial neural networks: imitating parts of the brain/ Recurrent networks: the conquest of time/ The neural representation of the social world/ EMPATH: a network for recognizing human emotions/ The human capacity for language/ Recurrent networks for grammatical discrimination/ Moral perception and moral understanding/ The brain in trouble: cognitive dysfunction and mental illness/ CAT scans/ PET scans/ MRI scans/ Apraxia and motor dysfunction/ Perceptual and cognitive dysfunction/ Mood disorders and emotional dysfunction/ Social dysfunction/ Therapies: talk versus chemical and surgical intervention/ The puzzle of consciousness/ Leibniz’s view/ Sensory qualities: Jackson’s neuroscientist/ Mentality without reduction: Searle’s hybrid position/ Could an electric machine be conscious?/ Language, science, politics and art/ Is language unique to humans?/ Dennett’s language-centered theory of consciousness: a critique/ The role of language in thought and consciousness/ Neural representation and the many forms of art/ Neurotechnology and human life/ Medical issues: psychiatric and neurological medicine/ Neural networds for diagnosis and treatment/ Legal issues: the birth and death of the self/ Sociopathology and corrective policy/ Using neural networks for research etc.

Paul M. Churchland is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego. He is author of “Matter and Consciousness: A Contemporary Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind” and “A Neurocomputational Perspective: The Nature of Mind and the Structure of Science.”

• Keywords: Catalogue Twelve – Philosophy · Philosophy Rare
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 40722AB

EUR 78,--