ABSTRACT

Imaginative cases, or what might be called puzzles and other thought experiments, play a central role in philosophy of mind. The real world also furnishes philosophers with an ample supply of such puzzles.

This volume collects 50 of the most important historical and contemporary cases in philosophy of mind and describes their significance. The authors divide them into five sections: consciousness and dualism; physicalist theories and the metaphysics of mind; content, intentionality, and representation; perception, imagination, and attention; and persons, personal identity, and the self. Each chapter provides background, describes a central case or cases, discusses the relevant literature, and suggests further readings. Philosophy of Mind: 50 Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Thought Experiments promises to be a useful teaching tool as well as a handy resource for anyone interested in the area.

Key Features:

  • Offers stand-alone chapters, each presented in an identical format:
    • Background
    • The Case
    • Discussion
    • Recommended Reading
  • Each chapter is self-contained, allowing students to quickly understand an issue and giving instructors flexibility in assigning readings to match the themes of the course.
  • Additional pedagogical features include a general volume introduction as well as smaller introductions to each of the five sections and a glossary at the end of the book.

chapter |2 pages

General Introduction

part I|64 pages

Consciousness and Dualism

chapter 1|4 pages

The Floating Man

chapter 2|4 pages

Leibniz's Mill

chapter 3|5 pages

The Disembodied Pain

chapter 4|8 pages

The Hard Problem of Consciousness

chapter 5|5 pages

What It's Like to Be a Bat

chapter 6|7 pages

Mary and the Black-and-White Room

chapter 7|6 pages

Zombies

chapter 8|5 pages

Yogis

chapter 9|6 pages

The Coffee Tasters

chapter 10|6 pages

The Hornswoggle Problem

chapter 11|6 pages

The Slugs and the Tiles

part II|67 pages

Physicalist Theories and the Metaphysics of Mind

chapter 12|7 pages

The Exclusion Problem

chapter 13|5 pages

The Puzzle of the Special Sciences

chapter 14|5 pages

The Super-Spartans

chapter 15|5 pages

Mad Pain and Martian Pain

chapter 16|6 pages

The Blockhead

chapter 17|6 pages

The Imitation Game

chapter 18|6 pages

The Chinese Room

chapter 19|5 pages

Eloise and the Tree

chapter 20|7 pages

Inverted Qualia

chapter 21|6 pages

Hempel's Dilemma

chapter 22|6 pages

Brains within Brains

part III|48 pages

Content, Intentionality, and Representation

chapter 23|7 pages

Rabbits and Rabbit Stages

chapter 24|7 pages

Swampman

chapter 25|8 pages

Twin Earth and Arthritis Man

chapter 26|6 pages

Otto's Notebook

chapter 27|6 pages

The Brain in a Vat

chapter 28|5 pages

Puzzling Pierre

chapter 29|5 pages

The Shopping List

part IV|54 pages

Perception, Imagination, and Attention

chapter 30|5 pages

Molyneux's Problem

chapter 31|5 pages

The Missing Shade of Blue

chapter 32|5 pages

Imagining Chiliagons

chapter 33|6 pages

Color Swatches and Speckled Hens

chapter 34|6 pages

The Skywalk

chapter 35|5 pages

Pine Trees and Cyrillic Text

chapter 36|7 pages

Synesthesia

chapter 37|6 pages

Change Blindness

part V|78 pages

Persons, Personal Identity, and the Self

chapter 39|7 pages

The Prince and the Cobbler

chapter 40|7 pages

The Chariot and the Candle

chapter 41|6 pages

The Body-Swap Puzzle

chapter 42|7 pages

Mind Uploading

chapter 43|5 pages

The Puzzle of Too Many Minds

chapter 44|7 pages

Split Brains and the Unity Puzzle

chapter 45|6 pages

Sharing Feelings, Combining Minds

chapter 46|5 pages

The Elusive Self

chapter 47|5 pages

The Essential Indexical

chapter 48|6 pages

The Queen and the Gametes

chapter 50|8 pages

The Puzzle of Transformative Choice