Paul Thagard uses new accounts of brain mechanisms and social interactions to forge theories of mind, knowledge, reality, morality, justice, meaning, and the arts. Natural Philosophy brings new methods for analyzing concepts, understanding values, and achieving coherence. It shows how to unify the humanities with the cognitive and social sciences.

Paul Thagard is a distinguished philosopher and cognitive scientist who has written many books, including The Brain and the Meaning of Life (Princeton University Press, 2010) and The Cognitive Science of Science (MIT Press, 2012). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Cognitive Science Society, and the Association for Psychological Science.

• Preface


• Acknowledgments


• 1. Philosophy Matters


• Why Philosophy?


• What is Philosophy?


• Issues and Alternatives: Ways of Philosophizing


• Elements of Natural Philosophy


• Overview of This Book


• Summary and Discussion


• Notes to Chapter 1: Philosophy Matters


• 2. Mind


• Mental Processes


• Issues and Alternatives


• Neural Mechanisms


• Semantic Pointers


• Inference to the Best Explanation to Multilevel Materialism


• Philosophical Objections


• Consciousness


• Summary and Discussion


• Notes to Chapter 2: Mind


• Chapter 3. Knowledge


• Minds and Knowledge


• Issues and Alternatives


• What is Knowledge?


• The Growth of Knowledge


• Justification


• Probability


• Knowledge is Social


• Conceptual Change and the Brain Revolution


• Summary and Discussion


• Notes to Chapter 3: Knowledge


• 4. Reality


• Make Reality Great Again


• Issues and Alternatives


• Existence


• Truth


• Space and Time


• Groups and Society


• Summary and Discussion


• Notes to Chapter 4: Reality


• 5. Explanation


• Knowledge Meets Reality


• Issues and Alternatives


• Styles of Explanation


• Emotional and Social Aspects of Explanation


• Causality


• Reduction and Emergence


• Summary and Discussion


• Notes to Chapter 5: Explanation


• 6. Morality


• Right and Wrong


• Issues and Alternatives


• Values


• Moral Emotions


• Objective Values and Rational Emotions


• Needs


• The Needs of Others


• Empathy


• Conflicting Needs and Ethical Coherence


• Why is There Evil?


• Summary and Discussion


• Notes to Chapter 6: Morality


• 7. Justice


• From Morality to Justice


• Issues and Alternatives


• Just Societies: Needs Sufficiency


• Just Governments


• Just Social Change


• Basic Income


• Summary and Discussion


• Notes to Chapter 7: Justice


• 8. Meaning


• Language and Life


• Issues and Alternatives


• Language and Mental Representation


• The Meanings of Life


• The Meaning of Death


• Summary and Discussion


• Notes to Chapter 8: Meaning


• 9. Beauty and Beyond


• Aesthetics


• Issues and Alternatives


• Beauty in Painting


• Other Emotions in Painting


• Creativity in Painting


• Beauty in Music


• Other Emotions in Music


• Creativity in Music


• Empathy in Literature and Film


• Summary and Discussion


• Notes to Chapter 9: Beauty and Beyond


• 10. Future Philosophy


• Looking Backwards and Forwards


• Free Will


• Mathematical Knowledge and Reality


• Non-Humans: Animals and Machines


• Summary and Discussion


• Notes to Chapter 10: Future Philosophy


• References


• Index