Simulating Minds: The Philosophy, Psychology, And Neuroscience Of Mindreading (philosophy Of Mind)
by Alvin I. Goldman /
2006 / English / PDF
3.7 MB Download
People are minded creatures; we have thoughts, feelings and
emotions. More intriguingly, we grasp our own mental states, and
conduct the business of ascribing them to ourselves and others
without instruction in formal psychology. How do we do this? And
what are the dimensions of our grasp of the mental realm? In this
book, Alvin I. Goldman explores these questions with the tools of
philosophy, developmental psychology, social psychology and
cognitive neuroscience. He refines an approach called simulation
theory, which starts from the familiar idea that we understand
others by putting ourselves in their mental shoes. Can this
intuitive idea be rendered precise in a philosophically respectable
manner, without allowing simulation to collapse into theorizing?
Given a suitable definition, do empirical results support the
notion that minds literally create (or attempt to create)
surrogates of other peoples mental states in the process of
mindreading? Goldman amasses a surprising array of evidence from
psychology and neuroscience that supports this hypothesis.
People are minded creatures; we have thoughts, feelings and
emotions. More intriguingly, we grasp our own mental states, and
conduct the business of ascribing them to ourselves and others
without instruction in formal psychology. How do we do this? And
what are the dimensions of our grasp of the mental realm? In this
book, Alvin I. Goldman explores these questions with the tools of
philosophy, developmental psychology, social psychology and
cognitive neuroscience. He refines an approach called simulation
theory, which starts from the familiar idea that we understand
others by putting ourselves in their mental shoes. Can this
intuitive idea be rendered precise in a philosophically respectable
manner, without allowing simulation to collapse into theorizing?
Given a suitable definition, do empirical results support the
notion that minds literally create (or attempt to create)
surrogates of other peoples mental states in the process of
mindreading? Goldman amasses a surprising array of evidence from
psychology and neuroscience that supports this hypothesis.