Re: books

From: Marchal <marchal.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Wed Jul 21 09:06:46 1999

James asked:
>Has anyone read:
>
>'Mind in the physical world: an essay on the mind-body problem and mental
>causation' by Jaeg-won Kim, MIT press, 1999
>or
>'The mysterious Flame: Conscious minds in a material world' by Colin McGinn,
>Basic Books 1999
>
>and if so are they worth buying?

My problem with people like Kim and McGinn is that they both take the
"physical world" for granted. They never tell us what they mean by that.
By reading them you realise they are "naive" materialist.
Same problem with the neurophilosophers like the Churchland and most
modern
philosopher of mind (except Lookwood, Chalmers, Maudlin, etc.).
I have read Kim's book on Supervenience, but, I am not really convinced.
McGuin also takes the physical world for granted, but his reflection
on consciousness (in his book "The Problem of Consciousness) seems to me
rather
interesting. McGuin is consider as a "Mysterianist". He believes that
we will never solve the "consciousness problem" not because it is magic,
but because we are too much concerned. I find it convincing.
The two books you mention are too recent and I have not read them. But
probably McGuin's book is worth buying.
For Kim, I don't know.
Do you know the book by Michael Tye : "Ten Problem on Consciousness" ?
(MIT Press 1995), I like it very much (especially the 80 first pages where
he exposes the main problems).
If you find a book written by a philosopher of Mind open to sort
of anthropic-like reasoning, please let me known.

Cheers,

Bruno.
Received on Wed Jul 21 1999 - 09:06:46 PDT