Unsnarling the World-Knot: Consciousness, Freedom, and the Mind-Body Problem - Hardcover

Griffin, David Ray

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0520209443 ISBN 13: 9780520209442

Publisher: University of California Press, 1998

Synopsis

The mind-body problem, which Schopenhauer called the "world-knot," has been a central problem for philosophy since the time of Descartes. Among realists—those who accept the reality of the physical world—the two dominant approaches have been dualism and materialism, but there is a growing consensus that, if we are ever to understand how mind and body are related, a radically new approach is required.

David Ray Griffin develops a third form of realism, one that resolves the basic problem (common to dualism and materialism) of the continued acceptance of the Cartesian view of matter. In dialogue with various philosophers, including Dennett, Kim, McGinn, Nagel, Seager, Searle, and Strawson, Griffin shows that materialist physicalism is even more problematic than dualism. He proposes instead a pan-experientialist physicalism grounded in the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. Answering those who have rejected "pan-psychism" as obviously absurd, Griffin argues compellingly that pan-experientialism, by taking experience and spontaneity as fully natural, can finally provide a naturalistic account of the emergence of consciousness—an account that also does justice to the freedom that we all presuppose in practice.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

"The pan-experientialist approach is an important possible position on the mind-body problem, and Griffin does a great service in accessibly presenting its distinctive 'slant' on that problem. . . . This will remind the mainstream that there are alternatives, radical alternatives, that can present a reasoned case for themselves."—William Seager, author of Metaphysics of Consciousness

About the Author:

David Ray Griffin is Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate School. His previous books include Physics and the Ultimate Significance of Time (1986), Evil Revisited (1991), and Founders of Constructive Postmodern Philosophy (1992).

About this edition

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0520209443
• ISBN 13: 9780520209442
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 264