Mind in Nature: From Science to Philosophy


Olga Markič
Department of Philosophy Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana Aškerčeva, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Series: World Philosophy
BISAC: PHI000000

The main purpose of this book is to investigate, from the philosophical point of view, the concept of mind in some quickly developing fields of contemporary science, from physics and cosmology to biology and cognitive science. New scientific investigations have brought many empirical results that help to explain natural phenomena from quantum states to human thinking, yet the question of the nature of the mind itself is still open. In this book, the authors discuss several philosophical problems raised or reformulated by recent scientific discoveries. The authors use an interdisciplinary and holistic approach that bridges the gap between scientific and humanistic pictures of the mind. (Imprint: Nova)



Table of Contents



I.Marko Uršič: Mind and Cosmology, Searching for a “Third Way”

1. “Fine tuning” and the Anthropic Cosmological Principle

2. Multiverse(s)

3. Paradoxes of transfinite cosmology

4. “Intelligent Design” vs. cosmological Darwinism

5. New ways of solving the “Goldilocks Enigma”

6. Emergence and emanation

7. Pantheism as the “third way” of philosophical cosmology

II. Olga Markič: Mind in cognitive science: from computational models to the embodied situated cognition

1. The mechanical picture

2. Cognition as computation

3. Mental processes as neural processes

4. Unresolved issues: mental causation problem and consciousness

5. Embodied, situated cognition: brain, body and world

III. Andrej Ule: Mind in Physical Reality, its Potentiality and Actuality

1. Processual aspects of consciousness

2. Potentiality in nature

3. Nonprocessual aspects of consciousness

4. The experiential perspective and the perspectivity dimension of reality

5. Does quantum mechanics provide a model of experiential consciousness?



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