Philosophy of mind (Cognition) - Essay Example

oduction of the mind/body problem, philosophers have resorted to changing entire metaphysical schemes in order to fit the newest levels of discourse relating to mind and consciousness. What the discourse has left philosophers in the current times are a variety of possibilities—each inherently saddled with inadequacies and pitfalls, and supported by arguments and logic. Even though, as is often the case, philosophy has not provided a solution to the mind/body problem, looking outside the philosophy of mind to the realm of the neurosciences has not provided anyone with a sufficient answer either.

Thus, the very thing which makes the philosophy of mind unattractive makes it irresistible: the very paradoxical nature of the mind/body problem, even while it repels people with irreducible and irresolvable intricacy, remains a completely necessary component of the entire philosophical enterprise. The solution to the problem will solidify any and all work in metaphysics and epistemology, and grant theorists of different fields an opportunity to proceed. But to find this solution, one first needs a survey of the field in order to grasp the context of its potential existence.

To understand the philosophy of mind, one needs a firm grasp of the problem upon which the entire discipline was constructed. The mind/body problem is often presented actually as a series of problems—some of which are epistemological, some metaphysical, some linguistic, and some pragmatic in nature (Goody, 1962, p. 362). In certain respects, this characterization is favorable insofar as it recognizes the very complex nature of the problem; attempts to reduce the problem to matters of causes, or matters of ontologies, or matters of concepts, are fundamentally mistaken.

What one can abstract from these various puzzles, however, is one recurring theme: how does a non-physical something relate to a material something? This question involves many separate sub-inquiries into the natures of mental states,