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Persons and Minds

The Prospects of Nonreductive Materialism

  • Book
  • © 1978

Overview

Authors:
  1. Joseph Margolis
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Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science (BSPS, volume 57)

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-XIII
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  2. Introduction

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. General Introduction

      • Joseph Margolis
      Pages 3-10

    3. The Theory of Persons Sketched

      • Joseph Margolis
      Pages 11-25

  3. Mind/Body Identity

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 27-27
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    2. The Relation of Mind and Body

      • Joseph Margolis
      Pages 28-33

    3. The Identity Theory

      • Joseph Margolis
      Pages 34-44

    4. Radical Materialism

      • Joseph Margolis
      Pages 45-59

    5. Materialism Without Identity

      • Joseph Margolis
      Pages 60-77

  4. Toward a Theory of Persons

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 79-79
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    2. Problems Regarding Persons

      • Joseph Margolis
      Pages 81-96

    3. Language Acquisition. I: Rationalists vs. Empiricists

      • Joseph Margolis
      Pages 97-117

    4. Language Acquisition. II: First and Second Languages and the Theory of Thought and Perception

      • Joseph Margolis
      Pages 118-145

    5. Propositional Content and the Beliefs of Animals

      • Joseph Margolis
      Pages 146-170

    6. Mental States and Sentience

      • Joseph Margolis
      Pages 171-196

  5. Sentience and Culture

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 197-197
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    2. Psychophysical Interaction

      • Joseph Margolis
      Pages 199-224

    3. The nature and Identity of Cultural Entities

      • Joseph Margolis
      Pages 225-242

    4. Action and Ideology

      • Joseph Margolis
      Pages 243-262

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 263-310
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Keywords

About this book

Persons and Minds is an inquiry into the possibilities of materialism. Professor Margolis starts his investigation, however, with a critique of the range of contemporary materialist theories, and does not find them viable. None of them, he argues, "can accommodate in a convincing way the most distinctive features of the mental life of men and oflower creatures and the imaginative possibilities of discovery and technology" (p. 8). In an extraordinarily rich analysis, Margolis carefully considers and criticizes mind-body identity theories, physicalism, eliminative materialism, behaviorism, as inadequate precisely in that they are reductive. He argues, then, for ramified concepts of emergence, and embodiment which will sustain a philosophically coherent account both of the distinctive non-natural character of persons and of their being naturally embodied. But Margolis provokes us to ask, what is an em­ bodied mind? The crucial context for him is not the plain physical body as such, but culture. "Persons", he writes, "are in a sense not natural entities: they exist only in cultural contexts and are identifiable as such only by refer­ ence to their mastery of language and of whatever further abilities presuppose such mastery" (p. 245). The hallmark of persons, in Margolis's account, is their capacity for freedom, as well as their physical endowment. Thus he writes, " . . . their characteristic powers - in effect, their freedom - must inform the order of purely physical causes in a distinctive way" (p. 246).

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Persons and Minds

  • Book Subtitle: The Prospects of Nonreductive Materialism

  • Authors: Joseph Margolis

  • Series Title: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9801-8

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland 1978

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-90-277-0854-0Due: 31 December 1977

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-90-277-0863-2Published: 31 December 1977

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-009-9801-8Published: 06 December 2012

  • Series ISSN: 0068-0346

  • Series E-ISSN: 2214-7942

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIV, 310

  • Topics: Philosophy of Mind

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