Making Sense of It All
Philosophy of Mind and Philosophy of Self
In short, this book does exactly what it says in the blurb on the cover: it provides a wonderfully accessible introduction to the topic referred to as philosophy of mind. The topics he covers in this short introduction to the field are: perception, dualism, materialism, qualia, consciousness, thought, intentionality and persons. This listing of topics will obviously immediately inform the reader of what exactly this particular field of philosophy is all about. briefly, the philosophy of mind deals with such thorny issues as (i) what precisely consciousness is at all, (ii) whether the mind and the brain are the same thing (iii) whether there is any such thing as the soul (iv) whether computers can think (v) what precisely it means to know something, (vi) what exactly thinking means anyway. As a teacher with a huge interest in the philosophy of education, all these issues and many others are extremely interesting to me. As a Resource Teacher who teaches adolescent boys with Asperger's Syndrome, that is students who lie on one part of the Autistic spectrum, I know that ASD is defined as a developmental learning disorder and that those who possess it have a triad of impairments: deficits in such areas as (i) Social and Emotional skills, (ii) Language and Communication skills and (iii) A theory of mind (also called flexibility of thought or imagination.) Johanna Lantz of The Indiana Resource Centre for Autism describes this third impairment thus:
As an erstwhile theologian and a current philosopher (of sorts) I have always been interested in making some sense of the enterprise of life. Finding ourselves thrust or thrown into existence (that old Heideggerian "dasein") we seek to make sense of life, with the myriads of complex problems it throws at us, as soon as self-consciousness dawns. The two books I wish to discuss briefly in this post are (i) The Philosophy of Mind, by Edward Feser, One World Books, Oxford, 2006 and (ii) Concepts of the Self, by Anthony Elliott, 2nd Edition, revised and updated, Polity, 2008.
(i) The Philosophy of Mind by Edward Feser
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| My Copy of Feser's book |
The concept of theory of mind can be difficult to grasp, as is typical with any exploration into the mental world of humans. This construct does not represent a single cognition, behavior, or emotion. The mind is comprised of beliefs, desires, emotions, perceptions, and intentions. Theory of mind is the ability to attribute these mental states to self and others in order to understand and predict behavior. It involves making the distinction between the real world and mental representations of the world. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder tend to be less proficient “mind readers” compared to people who are typical. Theory of mind deficits can be used to explain the social and communication impairments that define autism spectrum disorder. (See Here )
Hence, on a day to day level, I am very interested in "theory of mind" as defined by Dr Lantz above as it impacts forcefully on my work. When I am teaching my charges social and emotional skills, anger and anxiety management through group work, CBT or Social Stories, I certainly stress the importance of making a distinction between the real world and the student's mental representation of that world (often an obvious, if not gross, misrepresentation to us or to other neuro-typical persons).
Chapter 1 on perception visits all the old reliable topics, familiar to every student of philosophy, such as the contributions of René Decartes (1596 - 1650): dreams and demons, doubt and certainty, the gap between perceptual experiences (appearances) and reality, realism, indirect realism, skepticism, Occam's razor, and mind and matter. Feser explains all these concepts very clearly indeed, making it an eminently suitable book for a neophyte or total beginner in the field of philosophy. One extremely helpful aspect of this book is the quite good reading list the author gives at the end of each chapter.
The chapter on qualia is also very interesting. Let us recall that "qualia" (singular ="quale") is a term used in philosophy to refer to individual instances of subjective conscious experience. Examples of qualia are the pain of a headache or a toothache or an earache (from which this writer is suffering as he writes), the taste of wine, or the perceived redness of an evening sky, the taste of a good whiskey nightcap etc. Feser describes "qualia" thus:
Concepts of the Self, by Anthony Elliott
One word describes this book, and that is comprehensive. Anthony Elliott is Professor of Sociology at Flinders University, Australia, but the depth and breadth of his knowledge of self-theory is such that he is equally at home in philosophy, anthropology, psychology, feminism and politics as he is in sociology. This book is a lively, lucid and compelling introduction to what the "self" is or may be and to what our human identity entails. The introduction is also, in a word, comprehensive. In a world, shot through with information-overload, there exists a bombardment of the self with choices and stories and styles to select from in engaging in self-making. How we define ourselves is influenced, then, by many and multifarious facets of modern society, especially through the mass media and the globalization of the local through instant communication. The notion of the "privatized self", Elliott argues, must be seriously interrogated, for "we are all, no matter where we grew up or what successes or otherwise we might have achieved in our lives, exposed to cultures and structures in a profound and ongoing sense." (Op. cit., p. 4)
This book comprehensively describes the self in its many shapes or masks: the "self" through history; its social theories, the agency of self, the commercial self, the psychological self (especially as described in psychoanalysis); self-shaping through the Arts; the role of gender and sexuality in forming our identity; popular culture with its dominant conceptions of self (like body-beautiful and body-fit self, the quick-fix self); self as story (or the storied self); the self as symbolic project, the self as a quest - that is, a philosophical psychology of self; the fractured and dislocated self, the dysfunctional self in search of an integrated (healed) and fully-functional self; self as engagement and commitment; feminism and the self; the self in a multicultural society; and its fragility and its potential for greatness at one and the same time.
Chapter 1 deals with the narrative of self as it is portrayed in sociological theory. Then Chapter 2 follows up with an in-depth discussion of psychoanalytic concepts of the self. Chapter 3 examines the contribution of the French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault. Then Chapter Four takes up the story of the self as a gendered and sexual being and the writings of two feminists, namely Chodorow and Julia Kristeva, are discussed in detail. That chapter concludes with a discussion of recent gay and lesbian scholarship on the self as well as a critical evaluation of queer theory. The book continues with Chapter 5 which deals with the question of the postmodern self.
Elliott is quite humble in his aim for this book insofar as he tells us that he will be satisfied if any reader is encouraged to delve deeper into the extensive literature and debates on the nature of the self. He also underscores the fact that he has not intended the book to be exhaustive. Given that humble intention, one is inclined to believe that Elliott was ever so little mistaken. Altogether, this is a wonderful read and a good book to explore in tandem with Edward Feser's introduction to the philosophy of mind.
- the feel of a pinch or an itch or a pain, the taste of apple or whiskey, the redness of a fire engine or an after-image, and so on for all the sensory modalities - constitute, in the minds of many philosophers, the most serious challenge to materialism... you can't observe or pin-point the pain the way you can the blood vessels - and that should be a hint that there might indeed be something philosophically mysterious going on here... (Op. cit., p. 85)Hopefully, this brief review will whet the reader's appetite to dip into this book, the chapters of which obviously need not be read in sequence as they can be individually accessed on specific topics and read alone. Now, let us turn to our second book mentioned in my title above:
Concepts of the Self, by Anthony Elliott
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| My copy of Elliott's book |
One word describes this book, and that is comprehensive. Anthony Elliott is Professor of Sociology at Flinders University, Australia, but the depth and breadth of his knowledge of self-theory is such that he is equally at home in philosophy, anthropology, psychology, feminism and politics as he is in sociology. This book is a lively, lucid and compelling introduction to what the "self" is or may be and to what our human identity entails. The introduction is also, in a word, comprehensive. In a world, shot through with information-overload, there exists a bombardment of the self with choices and stories and styles to select from in engaging in self-making. How we define ourselves is influenced, then, by many and multifarious facets of modern society, especially through the mass media and the globalization of the local through instant communication. The notion of the "privatized self", Elliott argues, must be seriously interrogated, for "we are all, no matter where we grew up or what successes or otherwise we might have achieved in our lives, exposed to cultures and structures in a profound and ongoing sense." (Op. cit., p. 4)
This book comprehensively describes the self in its many shapes or masks: the "self" through history; its social theories, the agency of self, the commercial self, the psychological self (especially as described in psychoanalysis); self-shaping through the Arts; the role of gender and sexuality in forming our identity; popular culture with its dominant conceptions of self (like body-beautiful and body-fit self, the quick-fix self); self as story (or the storied self); the self as symbolic project, the self as a quest - that is, a philosophical psychology of self; the fractured and dislocated self, the dysfunctional self in search of an integrated (healed) and fully-functional self; self as engagement and commitment; feminism and the self; the self in a multicultural society; and its fragility and its potential for greatness at one and the same time.
Chapter 1 deals with the narrative of self as it is portrayed in sociological theory. Then Chapter 2 follows up with an in-depth discussion of psychoanalytic concepts of the self. Chapter 3 examines the contribution of the French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault. Then Chapter Four takes up the story of the self as a gendered and sexual being and the writings of two feminists, namely Chodorow and Julia Kristeva, are discussed in detail. That chapter concludes with a discussion of recent gay and lesbian scholarship on the self as well as a critical evaluation of queer theory. The book continues with Chapter 5 which deals with the question of the postmodern self.
Elliott is quite humble in his aim for this book insofar as he tells us that he will be satisfied if any reader is encouraged to delve deeper into the extensive literature and debates on the nature of the self. He also underscores the fact that he has not intended the book to be exhaustive. Given that humble intention, one is inclined to believe that Elliott was ever so little mistaken. Altogether, this is a wonderful read and a good book to explore in tandem with Edward Feser's introduction to the philosophy of mind.
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