The Biological Mind: A Philosophical Introduction

Description

For some, biology explains all there is to know about the mind. Yet many big questions remain: Is the mind shaped by genes or the environment? If mental traits are the result of adaptations built up over thousands of years, as evolutionary psychologists claim, how can such claims be tested? If the mind is a machine, as biologists argue, how does it allow for something as complex as human thought? Revised and updated to take account of new developments in the field, The Biological Mind: A Philosophical Introduction explores these questions and more, using the philosophy of biology to introduce and assess the nature of the mind. Justin Garson addresses the following key topics: moral psychology, altruism, and levels of selection; evolutionary psychology and the adaptationism debate; genes, environment, and the nature-nurture debate; natural selection and mental representation; psychiatric classification and the maladapted mind. This second edition includes three new chapters on race, sex, and human nature as well as new sections on group and kin selection, psychological altruism, and cultural evolution. Including chapter summaries, annotated further readings, a glossary of terms, and examples and case studies throughout, this is an indispensable introduction for those teaching philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, and philosophy of biology. It will also be an excellent resource for those in related fields such as biology. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Thinking biologically about the mind Function, structure, history Overview of the book 1 What is natural selection? 1.1 Life before Darwin 1.2 Nature’s selection 1.3 Sexual selection 1.4 Defining natural selection 1.5 The convolutions of fitness* Chapter summary and suggested readings References 2 Do groups undergo selection? 2.1 The problem of biological altruism 2.2 Group selection 2.3 Kin selection and the selfish gene 2.4 Reciprocal altruism 2.5 The equivalence thesis* Chapter summary and suggested readings References 3 Is natural selection the most powerful force of evolution? 3.1 “What is it for?” 3.2 Discovering adaptations 3.3 The adaptationism debate 3.4 Methodological and empirical adaptationism 3.5 Why do women have orgasms?* Chapter summary and suggested readings References 4 Is evolution the foundation of psychology? 4.1 Three psychological adaptations 4.2 Evolution and the mind 4.3 Evolutionary psychology 4.4 Problems of evolutionary psychology 4.5 Human behavioral ecology Chapter summary and suggested readings References 5 Do cultures evolve? 5.1 What is culture? 5.2 Enter the meme 5.3 Memes and their critics 5.4 Replicators and cultural attractors 5.5 Is cultural evolution fruitful? 5.6 The cultural inheritance of cultural learning Chapter summary and suggested readings References 6 Is anything innate? 6.1 What is “innate?” 6.2 Problems of defining innateness 6.3 Gene and environment 6.4 Genes as actual difference makers* 6.5 Innateness and heritability* 6.6 Should we eliminate “innate”? Chapter summary and suggested readings References 7 Are people altruistic? 7.1 The problem of psychological altruism 7.2 Egoism, altruism, hedonism 7.3 The limits of social psychology 7.4 An evolutionary argument for psychological altruism 7.5 Critics of psychological altruism Chapter summary and suggested readings References 8 What are mental representations? 8.1 The origin of meaning 8.2 Three theories of meaning 8.3 What are biological functions? 8.4 Making and using representations* 8.5 Problems for teleosemantics* Chapter summary and suggested readings References 9 What are mental disorders? 9.1 Can minds be sick? 9.2 Naturalism and normativism 9.3 Mental disorders as harmful dysfunctions 9.4 Are some mental disorders adaptations? 9.5 Mental disorders and developmental mismatches 9.6 The biostatistical theory of disorder Chapter summary and suggested readings References 10 Did racial classification evolve? 10.1 What is “racial classification”? 10.2 Anti-realism, social constructionism, biological naturalism 10.3 Race and genetics 10.4 Does genetics support biological realism?* 10.5 Evolution and racial classification 10.6 Is race a recent invention? Chapter summary and suggested readings References 11 Are there evolved psychological sex differences? 11.1 Posing the question 11.2 The essence of sex 11.3 Is sex binary? 11.4 Sexual selection and mating strategies 11.5 Hasn’t sexual selection been debunked? 11.6 Sex and the brain* Chapter summary and suggested readings References 12 Does human nature exist? 12.1 What is “human nature”? 12.2 Against human nature 12.3 An argument for species essentialism* 12.4 Human nature after essentialism Chapter summary and suggested readings References Glossary Index