The subject's point of view
By: Katalin Farkas.
Publisher: Oxford University Press; OUP Oxford
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 232
ISBN-13: 9780199230327
Subjects: Descartes, René, -- 1596-1650; Philosophy of mind; Externalism (Philosophy of mind); Internalism (Theory of knowledge); Knowledge, Theory of
Description: "Descartes's philosophy has had a considerable influence on the modern conception of the mind, but many think that this influence has been largely negative. The main project of The Subject's Point of View is to argue that discarding certain elements of the Cartesian conception would be much more difficult than critics seem to allow, since it is tied to our understanding of basic notions, including the criteria for what makes someone a person, or one of us. The crucial feature of the Cartesian view defended here is not dualism - which is not adopted - but internalism. Internalism is opposed to the widely accepted externalist thesis, which states that some mental features constitutively depend on certain features of our physical and social environment. In contrast, this book defends the minority internalist view, which holds that the mind is autonomous, and though it is obviously affected by the environment, this influence is merely contingent and does not delimit what is thinkable in principle."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Privileged access and the mark of the mental; title: Unconscious, conscious, bodily; title: Persons and minds; title: The internal and the external; title: Indiscriminability; title: Externalism and privileged self-knowledge; title: Reference and sense.