Meta Ontology

Naturalism is currently the most vibrantly developing approach to philosophy, with naturalised methodologies being applied across all the philosophical disciplines. One of the areas naturalism has been focussing upon is the mind, traditionally viewed as a topic hard to reconcile with the naturalistic worldview. A number of questions have been pursued in this context. What is the place of the mind in the world? How should we study the mind as a natural phenomenon? What is the significance of cognitive science research for philosophical debates? In this book, philosophical questions about the mind are asked in the context of recent developments in cognitive science, evolutionary theory, psychology, and the project of the naturalisation. Much of the focus is upon what we have learned by studying natural mental mechanisms as well as designing artificial ones. In the case of natural mental mechanisms, this includes consideration of such issues as the significance of deficits in these mechanisms for psychiatry. The significance of the evolutionary context for mental mechanisms as well as questions regarding rationality and wisdom is also explored. Mechanistic and functional models of the mind are used to throw new light on discussions regarding issues of explanation, reduction and the realisation of mental phenomena. Finally, naturalistic approaches are used to look anew at such traditional philosophical issues as the correspondence of mind to world and presuppositions of scientific research.CONTENTSIntroduction 1Naturalizing the MindMarcin Mi\lkowski and Konrad Talmont-KaminskiChapter One 12Reverse Engineering in Cognitive ScienceMarcin Mi\lkowskiChapter Two 30Carving the Mind by its Joints: Culture-bound PsychiatricDisorders as Natural KindsSamuli P\"oyh\"onenChapter Three 49Naturalizing WisdomMark AlfinoChapter Four 71A Biological Perspective on the Nature of Cognition:Some Remarks for a Naturalistic ProgramAlvaro MorenoChapter Five 86Do Animals See Objects?Pawe\l GrabarczykChapter Six 103Grounding the Origins of the State in the Evolution of the MindBeno\^it DubreuilChapter Seven 119Realization and Robustness: Naturalizing NonreductivePhysicalismMarkus I. Eronen Chapter Eight 138Can the Mental be Causally Efficacious?Panu RaatikainenChapter Nine 167On Reduction and Interfield Integration in NeuroscienceWitold M. HenselChapter Ten 182Challenges to Cartesian Materialism: UnderstandingConsciousness and the Mind-World RelationJonathan KnowlesChapter Eleven 203Qualia as Intrinsic PropertiesTadeusz CiecierskiChapter Twelve 216A HOT Solution to the Problem of the Explanatory GapDimitris PlatchiasChapter Thirteen 232Naturalizing Epistemology for Autonomous SystemsJaime Gomez RamirezChapter Fourteen 248How Truth could be Reduced? Field's Deflationism as a Kindof Supervenience ThesisKrystyna BieleckaChapter Fifteen 262How to Naturalize TruthMar\'ia J. Fr\'apolli