Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings

I used this book extensively on the Philosophy of Mind module on my philosophy degree. It has a wide range of papers you could spend an age trying to find individually, including many of the classic and often referenced examples from Nagel, Jackson, Putnam, Burge, Lewis, Fodor and Kim - not to forget Chalmers himself. This is not a light read and some of the papers are fairly technical, but not all, and when they are they mostly reward the careful reader with new insights. Chalmers is famous for his own views, but he takes an unbiased view in the selection of papers representing all the main camps in philosophy of mind. Given volume and quality of contents, I think this book is great value. If you are looking for the right papers to support you in studying philosophy of mind then this is a great selection. Combine it with an introductory text such as one of the ones from Kim, Heil or Churchland and you could have all you need for a philosophy of mind at an undergraduate level.Are there any criticisms? A few minor niggles. There is little in the way of introductory text for each section - and it would have been better to have had a few pages of positioning for each section in the book. Secondly, after a few weeks of intense reading my copy is looking pretty battered. It is a large book, which is always problematic in paperback format, but even so the physical quality is a little lower than I might ideally of liked. But these really are niggles.

I first came across this book as part of the requirements for a distance learning course in Philosophy of the Mind from Oxford University. Virtually all our material for study came from it. It is a superb collection of the most important papers written on this subject since Descartes (and of course includes some of his Meditations). It is helpfully divided into the principle philosophical positions that are taken. A concise overview of the these is given at the beginning.Chalmers has shown no real partiality in his choice of papers..preferring to reflect the work of the most influencial philosophers rather than his own views. His main contribution is a very helpful paper outlining most of the philsophical stances about the mind that are current, and he is one of the few who is sufficiently confident and humble to be fairly agnostic about the mind/body problem. If I had any quibble it would be that modern substance dualists,(admittedly a small breed),do not really get an airing; a physicalist world view predominates after Descartes. All in all however it is an excellent book.

differnt perspectives

I bought this book as a present for my nephew, I didnt know anything about philosophy so I found all the reviews very helpful. He has told me it is the best present he has had.

Arrived on time perfect book to understand your mind. Be aware read it for knowledge don’t get carried away or lost.