Brainstorming: Views and Interviews on the Mind [Paperback]

Shaun Gallagher (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1845400232 | ISBN-13: 978-1845400231 | Publication Date: November 1, 2008

Gallagher presents a collection of dialogues between himself and a number of neuroscientists, including Michael Gazzaniga, Marc Jeannerod, and Chris Frith, on the relation between the mind and brain.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Shaun Gallagher is Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of Central Florida and coeditor of the journal "Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences".

Product Details

• Paperback: 276 pages
• Publisher: Imprint Academic (November 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1845400232
• ISBN-13: 978-1845400231
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #172,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book is very well put together. Highly recommended for anyone interested in consciousness., January 20, 2010

By 

Warren R. Grayson "Constant Reader" (Birmingham, AL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Brainstorming: Views and Interviews on the Mind (Paperback)

Shaun Gallagher has put together a great book here. They greatest feature of Brainstorming is that Gallagher hasn't just thrown a bunch of random quotes together; it is obvious that he took the time to methodically lay out his approach and make his argument.

So what is the argument? Essentially that Computationalism is quite futile in its attempt at explaining most, if any, of the properties of consciousness while Embodied Cognition is more fruitful. To make this argument Gallagher draws from interviews, dialogues and exchanges between various professionals working on the problem of consciousness. They are: Michael Arbib (Action to Language via the Mirror Neuron System), Jonathan Cole (The Invisible Smile: Living without facial expression), Christopher Frith (Making up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World), Michael Gazzaniga (Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique), Marc Jeannerod (Motor Cognition: What Actions Tell to the Self (Oxford Portraits in Science)), Anthony Marcel, Jacques Paillard (Brain and Space (Oxford Science Publications)), Jaak Panksepp (Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions (Series in Affective Science)) and Francisco Varela (On Becoming Aware: A Pragmatics of Experiencing (Advances in Consciousness Research, 43)).

I really enjoyed this book and found it very informative in the ongoing debate about Mind/Body, the "hard problem of consciousness", computationalism, embodied cognition and phenomenology. I would simply add that this book is somewhat technical; I don't imagine that a layman could read this book and be completely satisfied. I believe however, that IF someone wanted to read this book without much background in Philosophy of Mind AND was committed to it, then it wouldn't be too difficult to do a little research and catch-up. This would make a great introductory text to studying Embodied Cognition (which is the view that is presently displacing Computationalism in Philosophy of Mind). Here are a couple of other books that are worthy of looking at in this area: Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension (Philosophy of the Mind) and The Conscious Brain: Facts and Consequences.