Psycho-Physical Dualism Today

Edited by Alessandro Antonietti; Antonella Corradini and Jonathan E. Lowe - Contributions by Friedrich Beck; Carl Johnson; Franz von Kutschera; E Jonathan Lowe; Uwe Meixner; David S. Oderberg; Ian J. Thompson and Henry Wellman

Until quite recently, mind-body dualism has been regarded with deep suspicion by both philosophers and scientists. This has largely been due to the widespread identification of dualism in general with one particular version of it: the interactionist substance dualism of Réné Descartes. This traditional form of dualism has, ever since its first formulation in the seventeenth century, attracted numerous philosophical objections and is now almost universally rejected in scientific circles as empirically inadequate. During the last few years, however, renewed attention has begun to be paid to the dualistic point of view, as a result of increasing discontent with the prevailing materialism and reductionism of contemporary scientific and philosophical thought. Awareness has grown that dualism need not be restricted to its traditional form and that other varieties of dualism are not subject to the difficulties commonly raised against Descartes' own version of it. Interest in these alternative versions of dualism is growing fast today, because it seems that they are capable of capturing deep-seated philosophical intuitions, while also being fully consistent with the methodological assumptions and empirical findings of modern scientific work on the human mind and brain. The object of this book is to provide philosophers, scientists, their students, and the wider general public with an up-to-date overview of current developments in dualistic conceptions of the mind in contemporary philosophy and science.

Part 1 Introduction Part 2 Part I. Psycho-Physical Dualism: Scientific Approaches Chapter 3 Developing Dualism: From Intuitive Understanding to Transcendental Ideas Chapter 4 Must Psychologists Be Dualists? Chapter 5 Mind, Brain, and Dualism in Modern Physics Chapter 6 Discrete Degrees Within and Between Nature and Mind Part 7 Part II. Psycho-Physical Dualism: Philosophical Perspectives Chapter 8 Mutual Dependencies of the Mental and the Physical Chapter 9 The Reductio of Reductive and Non-reductive Materialism-and a New Start Chapter 10 A Defense of Non-Cartesian Substance Dualism Chapter 11 Emergent Dualism Chapter 12 Concepts, Dualism, and the Human Intellect