Boundaries of the Mind: The Individual in the Fragile Sciences - Cognition

Description

Where does the mind begin and end? Most philosophers and cognitive scientists take the view that the mind is bounded by the skull or skin of the individual. Robert Wilson, in this provocative and challenging new book, provides the foundations for the view that the mind extends beyond the boundary of the individual. The approach adopted offers a unique blend of traditional philosophical analysis, cognitive science, and the history of psychology and the human sciences. A forthcoming companion volume Genes and the Agents of Life will explore the theme in the biological sciences. Written with verve and clarity, this ambitious book will appeal to a broad swathe of professionals and students in philosophy, psychology, cognitive science, and the history of the behavioural and human sciences.

Robert A. Wilson is Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Alberta.

"[T]his new work offers a comprehensive account of the impact of the debate over individualism for the 'fragile sciences,' Wilson's term for the cognitive, biological, and social sciences. This book will interest philosophers, psychologists, and cognitive scientists. Recommended." D. Haugen, Western Illinois University, CHOICE "Boundaries of the Mind is a learned and imaginative work. In it, Wilson greatly expands his ongoing anti-individualist campaign and relates it interestingly to long-standing issues of individualism in the social sciences, to several controversies in genetics and evolutionary theory, and to current disputes over nativism in psychology. I believe most anyone would learn from this book." William G. Lycan, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill "Boundaries of the Mind is a learned and imaginative work. In it, Wilson greatly expands his ongoing anti-individualist campaign and relates it interestingly to long-standing issues of individualism in the social sciences, to several controversies in genetics and evolutionary theory, and to current disputes over nativism in psychology. I believe most anyone would learn from this book." William G. Lycan, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill "This is a brilliant book in which Wilson demonstrates how one of the most important controversies in the philosophy of mind, whether the mind should be understood in individualist or externalist terms, is part of a much larger set of related issues in all of the 'fragile Sciences' such as evolutionary biology and anthropology." Frank Keil, Yale University "Philosophy is a difficult subject, and philosophical prose is typically dense. It is often easy for a reader to lose the woods for the trees. Wilson's work is absolutely exemplary in helping the reader see the wood and the trees at the same time. Indeed, I have never read clearer philosophical prose." Kim Sterelny, Australian National University