Beyond the Mind-Body Problem
The Mind as a Scientific Object January 13, 2005 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780195139327.003.0033 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that philosophy of mind should be understood as the attempt to elucidate how things fit to form minds and how minds fit with other things, following Sellars's broad conception of philosophy. |
Abstract
Abstract Wilfrid Sellars once famously described philosophy as aiming to understand how things, in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together in the broadest possible sense of the term (Sellars, 1962, p. 37). In the spirit of that suggestion, we can think of philosophy of mind as the attempt to say how minds hang together- how things fit to form minds, and how minds fit with other things. It can hardly be disputed that there are these kinds of fit; in that respect, at least, the world is a coherent place. The philosophical challenge is to understand and elucidate the nature of the fit, such as it is.