The mind and its world

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Ever since Descartes made his sharp distinction between the mind and the body, the idea that the mind is essentially separable from the world and even from the body it inhabits has exerted an enormous influence on philosophy, psychology, cognitive science and artificial intelligence: the mind, the argument runs, is 'in the head'. In The Mind and Its World, Gregory McCulloch argues that this claim is in fact untenable. Tracing the history of the idea from Descartes through Locke, Frege and Wittgenstein to behaviourism and contemporary forms of Cartesianism, he demonstrates that the philosophy of mind has yet to resolve many of the problems arising from its adoption and adaptation of Descartes' position. McCulloch argues that these issues can only be resolved through a non-Cartesian approach, and in the second part of this book he develops such an alternative. The resulting position is externalist and holds that the mind is separable neither from the body nor from the environment in which this body lives. The Mind and Its World provides a clear and accessible introduction to a cluster of contemporary controversies in the philosophy of mind and language. Written mainly for students with no previous knowledge of the subject, it will also make stimulating reading for specialists in the field.