Matter of the Mind - Philosophical Essays on Psychology, Neuroscience and Reduction

The Matter of the Mind addresses and illuminates the relationship between psychology and neuroscience by focusing on the topic of reduction.§Written by leading philosophers in the field§Discusses recent theorizing in the mind-brain sciences and reviews and weighs the evidence in favour of reductionism against the backdrop of recent important advances within psychology and the neurosciences§Collects the latest work on central topics where neuroscience is now making inroads in traditional psychological terrain, such as adaptive behaviour, reward systems, consciousness, and social cognition.The Matter of the Mind addresses and illuminates fundamental questions about the relationship between psychology and its associated disciplines by focusing on the topic of reduction.§After decades of an "antireductionist consensus" in the sciences, reductionism has become credible, even fashionable, again due first to new empirical evidence supporting reductionist claims, and secondly to a "new wave" model of reduction which overcomes many of the conceptual difficulties which previously discredited it. These original articles, written by expert philosophers on the subject of reduction, discuss recent theorizing in the mind-brain sciences, and review and weigh the evidence in favor of the new wave of reduction against the backdrop of recent important advances within psychology and the neurosciences. This volume collects the latest work on central topics where neuroscience is now making inroads in traditional psychological terrain, such as adaptive behavior, reward systems, consciousness, and social cognition.