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This book is an analysis and discussion of the soul as a psychophysical process and its role in mental representation, meaning, understanding and agency. Grant Gillett and Walter Glannon combine contemporary neuroscience and philosophy to address fundamental issues about human existence and living and acting in the world. Based in part on Aristotle's hylomorphism and model of the psyche, their approach is informed by a neuroscientific model of the brain as a dynamic organ in which patterns of neural oscillation and synchronization are shaped by biological, social and cultural factors inside and outside of it. The authors provide a richer and more robust account of the soul, or mind, than other accounts by framing it in neuroscientific and philosophical terms that do not explain it away but explain it as something that is shaped by how it responds to the natural and social environment in enabling flexible and adaptive behavior.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Neurodynamics and Adaptive Behavior.- Chapter 3: Being in the World (after Wittgenstein).- Chapter 4: The Neurophilosophy of Flexible Being.- Chapter 5: Being Discursive.- Chapter 6: Consciousness, Discourse, and Intention.- Chapter 7: Being Good.
About the author
Grant Gillett is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Biomedical Ethics at the University of Otago and Professor in Law and Medicine at AUT University. He is the author of 11 books and is now working in the area of postcolonialism and indigenous, specifically Maori, perspectives on health, law and philosophy. He received an MBChB in Medicine from the University of Auckland, and an MSc in Psychology and a DPhil in Philosophy from Oxford University. He was a practicing neurosurgeon at Dunedin Hospital from 1988 to 2010.
Walter Glannon is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Calgary. He is the author or editor of 13 books. He received a PhD in Philosophy from Yale University.
