Author: Rockwell, W. Teed
Title: Neither Brain Nor Ghost: A Nondualist Alternative to the Mind-Brain Identity Theory
Description: Cambridge [MA], MIT Press, 2005. orig.boards. 24x15cm, xxii,235 pp. Minor rubbing. VG. ¶ A rejection of both dualism and the mind-brain identity theory, arguing that the mind is best understood as a "behavioural field" that fluctuates within the brain/body/world nexus. In this highly original work, Teed Rockwell rejects both dualism and the mind-brain identity theory. He proposes instead that mental phenomena emerge not merely from brain activity but from an interacting nexus of brain, body, and world. The mind can be seen not as an organ within a body, but as a "behavioural field" that fluctuates within this brain-body-world nexus. If we reject the dominant form of the mind-brain identity theory - which Rockwell calls " Cartesian materialism" (distinct from Daniel Dennett's concept of the same name) - and accept this new alternative, then many philosophical and scientific problems can be solved. Other philosophers have flirted with these ideas, including Dewey, Heidegger, Putnam, Millikan, and Dennett. But Rockwell goes father than these tentative speculations and offers a detailed alternative to the dominant philosophical view, applying pragmatist insights to contemporary scientific and philosophical problems. Rockwell shows that neuroscience no longer supports the mind-brain identity theory because the brain cannot be isolated from the rest of the nervous system; moreover, there is evidence that the mind is hormonal as well as neural...." - Publisher's description.

Keywords: Mind-Brain Identity Theory, Mind and Body, Pragmatism, Philosophy, , , , ,