How the Mind Uses the Brain: To Move the Body and Image the Universe - Softcover

Ellis, Ralph; Newton, Natika

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0812696638 ISBN 13: 9780812696639

Publisher: Open Court, 2010

Synopsis

The nature of consciousness and the relationship between the mind and brain have become the most hotly debated topics in philosophy. This book explains and argues for a new approach called enactivism. Enactivism maintains that consciousness and all subjective thoughts and feelings arise from an organism's attempts to use its environment in the service of purposeful action. The authors admit that their perspective presents many problems: How does one distinguish real action from reaction? Is it scientifically acceptable to say that the whole organism can use its parts, instead of being a mere summation of their separate mechanical reactions? What about the danger that this analysis will imply that physical systems fail to be "causally closed"? How the Mind Uses the Brain tries to answer these questions and represents a sharp break with tradition, arguing that consciousness and emotions are aspects of an organism's ongoing self-organizational activity, driving information-processing rather than merely responding to it.

About this title

About the Author

Ralph D. Ellis is Professor of Philosophy at Clark Atlanta University. His books include Coberence and Verification in Ethics (1991), Questioning Consciousness (1995), and Curious Emotions (2005).
Natika Newton is Professor of Philosophy at Nassau Community College and author of Foundations of Understanding (1996). Ellis and Newton have co-edited The Caldron of Consciousness (2000) and now co-edit the pathbreaking series of monographs, Consciousness and Emotion.

Edition details

• Publisher: Open Court
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0812696638
• ISBN 13: 9780812696639
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352