Mind, Cognition, and Neuroscience: A Philosophical Introduction

This carefully designed, multi-authored textbook covers a broad range of theoretical issues in cognitive science, psychology, and neuroscience. With accessible language, a uniform structure, and many pedagogical features, Mind, Cognition, and Neuroscience: A Philosophical Introdution is the best high-level overview of this area for an interdisciplinary readership of students. Written specifically for this volume by experts in their fields who are also experienced teachers, the book’s thirty chapters are organized into the following parts:

I. Background Knowledge
II. Classical Debates
III. Consciousness
IV. Crossing Boundaries

Each chapter starts with relevant key words and definitions and a chapter overview, then presents historical coverage of the topic, explains and analyzes contemporary debates, and ends with a sketch of cutting edge research. A list of suggested readings and helpful discussion topics conclude each chapter. This uniform, student-friendly design makes it possible to teach a cohort of both philosophy and interdisciplinary students without assuming prior understanding of philosophical concepts, cognitive science, or neuroscience.

Key Features:

• Synthesizes the now decades-long explosion of scientifically informed philosophical research in the study of mind.
• Expands on the offerings of other textbooks by including chapters on language, concepts and non-conceptual content, and animal cognition.
• Offers the same structure in each chapter, moving the reader through an overview, historical coverage, contemporary debates, and finally cutting-edge research.
• Packed with pedagogical features, like defined Key Terms, Suggested Readings, and Discussion Questions for each chapter, as well as a General Glossary.
• Provides readers with clear, chapter-long introductions to Cognitive Neuroscience, Molecular and Cellular Cognition, Experimental Methods in Cognitive Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Science, Metaphysical Issues, and Epistemic Issues.　

Benjamin D. Young is Director of Graduate Studies in Philosophy, a Graduate Faculty in Interdisciplinary Neuroscience, and a member of the Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Nevada, Reno. Young has published articles on mental imagery, non-conceptual content, qualitative unconsciousness, and the perceptible objects of smell in journals such as Mind & Language, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, and Philosophical Studies.

Carolyn Dicey Jennings is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science at University of California, Merced. She is author of The Attending Mind (Cambridge UP, 2020).